by Natalie Fitts

I was dreading going to the Rockhurst football game on a recent Friday night. I hadn’t gone to one since sophomore year because I didn’t enjoy them. They are a time for the girls to try to look cute, sit in the stands and wish for Rockhurst boys to talk to them and for the boys to cheer on their team, be annoying and ignore the girls. But I had promised my friend I would go to watch the STA dance team perform at halftime so I knew I had to suck it up and go one last time in my high school career.

I arrived late and planned to leave early to ensure I spent the least amount of time possible at the game. As I sat in the stands, I counted down the minutes to when the dance team would perform so I could escape and go do something actually enjoyable.

As dance team prepared to walk on the field, I was excited and relieved. But then it happened.

“No one leave, guys. STA is about to perform,” a Rockhurst senior shouted to the entire student section.

I wasn’t sure I had heard him correctly, but sure enough, every Rockhurst boy stayed put in order to support STA, which is something I previously thought they never did.

Those two short sentences changed my perspective on Rockhurst boys completely.

When I was thinking about it later, I realized I hated Rockhurst games so much because the guys stood over in their student section, cheering loudly, dressed in costume and prohibiting any outsiders from coming in and any insiders from going out. I realized I had been judging every individual at Rockhurst based on what they acted like when they were all together as a student section. I thought they were cocky, exclusive and obnoxious.

But when I compared it to STA, I realized that if I were an outsider at an STA versus Sion game, I would probably hate STA girls the way I hated Rockhurst guys. We have exactly the same mentality they do in our student section–we cheer obnoxiously, go all out in theme and chant “boys gotta go” (when they actually do come to our games). The only difference is that at STA games, I’m an insider, but at Rockhurst games, I’m an outsider.

When you take STA girls out of the student section setting and mentality, we’re welcoming, friendly, funny, intelligent students. And based on my experiences, when you take Rockhurst boys out of their student section setting and mentality, they have some of the same qualities we do–they’re welcoming, friendly, funny and intelligent. They also support STA the way STA supports them, which they all displayed that Friday night.

Whenever I’ve met Rockhurst boys in settings other than their school events, I really like (most of) them. They aren’t obnoxious like they are at games. They aren’t exclusive like they are at games. They aren’t in the “Rock State” mentality like they are at games.

Rockhurst boys don’t need to change the way they act at their sporting events. Neither do STA girls. However, both student bodies could work on not judging each other based on one setting, like I had done for the past three years.

Rockhurst students still have their brotherhood outside of Rockhurst games, just like STA students still have their sisterhood outside of STA games. However, both schools are better at extending that brother/sisterhood to other people, just as it should be. STA girls love the “dear neighbor,” and Rockhurst boys are “men for others.”