School pride is what brings a student body together. Attending games allows students to bond as a whole for the sole purpose of supporting their school team.
This past March, the annual YU Sarachek Tournament brought 20 yeshivot together from around the country in the hopes of bringing back the first-place title and trophy to their high school. From Los Angeles to Miami, family and friends flew into Manhattan to support their teams.
The stands were filled to capacity with YU students wearing their high school jerseys and gear. Some showed up with painted faces with their school’s colors. Many sang their classic high school cheers.
This all seems normal for any university, as in most colleges it’s typical for students to go to sports games supporting their team, sporting their school colors. Yet, seeing the stands at the YU basketball gym overflowing with fans is, unfortunately, a rare site for many people during a game. Ironically, many YU students made more of an effort to show up for their high school team’s game than their own college games during the year.
It’s common for the stands to be practically empty at most home games, whether it is a women’s volleyball game at Baruch College, which is only ten blocks away from the Beren campus, or the YU gym, which is conveniently connected to the Wilf campus.
Oddly, students were not surprised by the large turnout at the high school tournament, while taking into account the minimal amount of YU fans throughout the year. Student athletic staff member and volleyball player, Jackie Berger, said, “As much as I would love to see our schoolmates support us at our games, I completely understand why everyone gets so hyped up about Sarachek.” Reminiscing about her high school days, Berger went on to say, “There is a certain feeling of excitement you get when you reconnect with your [high school] team and friends that is different from your college team.”
Although it is standard for the gym to be filled with friends and family during the Sarachek tournament, Berger hopes that future YU games can gain more YU students cheering them on as well. She says, “I believe that the YU teams are more likely to succeed with a bigger fan base.” With school emails constantly sent out about upcoming games, it was still disappointing for Berger to see the high school-college ratio of fans. She went on to say, “I have to admit that it was kind of sad to see so many people show more support for their high school then for their college team.”
However, many YU students turned out specifically to support younger siblings. Senior Sara Yitzhaky explained, “My brother Aaron will be going to Israel next year, and he may not play on a school team again.” While Yitzhaky said that she has never attended a YU game, she said, “It’s really difficult to make the time to go, and even though I went to see my brother, I know that there is still time for me to go to a YU game. Sarachek only comes once a year, and I didn’t want to miss it.”