Broomfield High School is known for its cheerful atmosphere and outstanding school spirit; however, over the past decade BHS has been experiencing a decrease in student attendance at its school events. Many people in the community have recognized this happening and they want to figure out exactly the cause.

“Everywhere we go, people want to know, who we are, so we tell them, we are Broomfield, we are Broomfield, Oooooooooooh!” The Gymnastics team chants this down the halls of other schools (and our own gym) before competitions, and it seems so easy as the words fly out of our mouths with no thought or question as to why. Since freshman year, this cheer, along with several others, were engraved into my brain by the upperclassmen

“Broomfield is the loudest high school team,” they would tell the other freshman and me. “People get annoyed at how loud we are,” they would continue. But in the end of it all, other teams would start asking questions like, “How is Bromfield such a joyful and supportive team?” And during my four years on the gymnastics team I never really questioned this myself until recently.

Broomfield is more than just a school. Broomfield is a family. Unlike other schools, Broomfield is a community school, meaning, not only are the students involved, but so are members all throughout the city.

Broomfield is known for having amazing school spirit. Under the bright Friday night lights at football games, the bleachers are packed with students, parents, and friends and family. The roar of students shouting school cheers along with the cheerleaders and poms team make the night exciting and hype up the football team. Overall, it’s a happy and welcoming environment.

The heart of Broomfield, someone who truly bleeds blue, is Charlene Orvis, who works in the athletic department. Orvis is Broomfield’s number one fan. She is at every game and athletic event, cheering and showing her Eagle spirit right next to the students. Her enthusiasm is overpowering and keeps Broomfield motivated.

Lately, though, Orvis has voiced her concerns with the lack of attendance at Broomfield’s sporting events. The main issue Orvis sees our school dealing with is having the prominent leaders that we have had in the past. “I really don’t feel like we have our leaders this year,” explains Orvis. “A lot of times in the past few years we’ve had our leaders in the crowd that sat in the front row and got the whole student section going.”

This year, we don’t have those students who are at every game, dressed in their Broomfield attire, and encouraging others to go to games.  

It started at the very beginning of the year. On late Friday nights, during football games, when you would look at the bleachers during halftime and see that the majority of students had left. The team had been playing great and was on their way to winning. But where did everyone go, and why?

There could be many reasons as to why this is happening. Not knowing is frustrating for many people including those athletes, coaches, the administration, and parents. Jim Davidson, the head soccer coach and a language arts teacher, expressed his frustration with this dilemma. He agreed that the leadership is at low and the seniors should be bringing it: “The seniors are the group that need to set the tone and need to be the group that clearly provides the example.” This year, though, there hasn’t been that set in stone, group of seniors taking on that role. And it shows. “The boys soccer crowds were about as small as I’ve ever seen,” says Davidson. “I’ve been doing this for 22 years and the lack of support that I saw during the fall was a bit disheartening.” Davidson also mentioned that the players expressed a bit of dissolution, too. They hoped their friends would be at games.

Davidson also suggested that social media has impacted our generation dramatically. “Now it consumes us. People don’t have as much face to face interaction anymore,” says Davidson. He adds, though, that it is not entirely our fault saying, “That’s just a societal trend. Students would rather stay home, be on their phones, on social media, doing their homework, and being a little more isolated.”

Social media, however, has played a crucial role in Broomfield’s advertising of athletics, so, to say that it has a negative impact wouldn’t be completely true. Student council members use snapchat, instagram, and twitter to remind and update students of future games and events going on at Broomfield. The Eagle Way Snapchat, especially, has become an easy way for students to vlog what is happening at events; that way, no would miss out. But maybe this is a contribution to what Davidson had mentioned about how “students would rather stay home, [and] be on their phones.” If they are able to get updates on games from the comfort of their own home, why go out? Why not go out, though? Football games, soccer games, and basketball games are supposed to be fun. So why are not as many students attending them anymore?

Another idea is, since Broomfield has opened its doors and became a school that offers open enrollment, many believe that this is one of the reasons for a decrease in attendance at the event. “We used to be truly that community school,” says Davidson. “Everybody was from Broomfield. Now we’ve open the doors for open enrollment. I have some concerned that we lost some of that identity.” Many kids who are open enrolled do face the obstacle of commuting to school and back everyday. It is possible that, because of this commute, kids are unable to find rides to games because they live far from the school.

For many, the declining attendance rates at school events (specifically in sports), has brought worry. The thought of Broomfield no longer having the energy and character of what it means “to be an Eagle” is frightening.

Our homecoming assemblies are a great representation of what school spirit should be like. The class of 2019 became the first class in Broomfield High history to have won the homecoming assembly all four years. Yet, the seniors, who are supposed to lead the rest of the school in spirit, didn’t exactly follow through this year. “It all stops after the homecoming assembly.” Orvis explains. “This last homecoming assembly is better than we ever had, in the 32 years I’ve been in Broomfield…Where does that spirit go when that day is over?”

We know what Broomfield is capable of. The fact that each school year begins with a louder, more spirit-packed homecoming assembly than the previous year proves that Broomfield is growing.

So what is next? What needs to be done to resolve the absence of spirit? Principal Ginger Ramsey explains how she didn’t think there was any one way to replenish this deficit in spirit. Several actions need to be taken.

We first need to come together as a school to recognize what is happening. Then we need to ask the bigger question: how hard are we willing to work? Because it’s not easy being an Eagle. We work hard for what we want. We can see that in the teachers who put loads of effort into their students, the coaches who work on building strong athletes, and the rest of our school’s staff who strive to make our school a better place.

Let us students, like Mrs. Orvis, learn to bleed true blue. Because we are Broomfield.