Varsity wide receiver John Haarmann also believes that fans impact their performance.

“Our fans affect us big time. We know the fans are there for us, so knowing they came to support us makes us try harder to give them a good show,” Haarmann said.

Athletes realize the importance of dedicated, loud fans.

“I think crowd involvement can effect the outcome of a game. With the crowd cheering it pumps us up and gives us an edge against the other team,” Haarmann said.

Varsity cheerleader Ashley Killough also agrees.

“I definitely think crowd involvement can effect the outcome of a game. It pumps the players up and gives just that little bit more strength, hope, or whatever they need to continue the game,” she said.

According the bepress.com, The Berkley Electronic Press did a study on this theory.

“Our results indicate that a one standard deviation increase in attendance results in a 4% increase in the likelihood of a home team win. We also find that if attendance as a percent of stadium capacity were to increase by 48%, we would expect the home team’s run differential to increase by one run. We show that the additional home-field advantage is driven by increased home team performance,” The Berkley Electronic Press wrote.

School spirit transfers from the stands to the classroom.

According to schoolthemes.org, “school spirit can improve a student’s commitment to education.”

Haarmann says other school’s involvement also impacts players.

“The opponents cheering does effect me. It’s really hard to zone them out, but I just try not to think and it and play the game,” he said.

With fans being extremely vital to the game, students should realize the importance.

“Our fans could be better overall by being more aware of what is happening in the game,” Holland said. “Be more peppy when we need that extra push that could make or break us”.

“I’d like to see our fans to be how they were at the Ft. Zumwalt West football game like that at every game. It’s nice to turn around and see fans going crazy for the team they love,” Killough said.

Holland hopes students will start to bring their game day energy into the school day.

“Spirit shouldn’t be just present at games, but in school too,” she said. “Just think, if we could have spirit starting from the beginning of the day when school starts, think of how pumped up the players would be at the game.”