It feels strange to write an opinion piece for The Record. I thought I was done with writing for this paper, and I’ve especially thought I was done talking about the Goshen College student section.

But I knew I had to write this after last Wednesday.

Like most Wednesdays, I was working as a P.A. announcer at the GC women’s soccer game. The Maple Leafs were playing a top-10 nationally ranked team, and I knew it wouldn’t be very well attended. After all, it was a Wednesday night game, and we  were heavy underdogs. But it was a nice evening, and I figured there would be at least decent support from the student section.

What I didn’t expect was seeing maybe seven or eight students show up, and the student section empty before “We Love You, Goshen” — a tradition that I’ve never seen skipped at the end of a soccer game.

Last Wednesday was the most obvious example, but I’ve noticed a growing sense of apathy from the GC student section this year. 

Maybe this is what happens when you graduate and start looking in on student life from the outside. I know I’m probably going to come across as a skeptical employee, and I’m really trying to avoid just sounding like one of those “back in my day” people.

However, I do think that it’s important to take stock of how we support athletics as a school, and to understand how important it can be to our athletes to have an energetic, supportive student section.

In the last few years, there have been poorly attended games. That always happens. But it was a rare occasion to see a solid crowd turn out and then sit down for the entire first half of a Saturday soccer game … which happened at this past Saturday’s Homecoming game.

I know as well as anyone how frustrating it can be to go to games, week in and out, that end in losses. I’ve been a diehard Pittsburgh Pirates fan for my entire life (it hurts), and in my four years as a student at GC, the Maple Leafs didn’t host a single playoff game. Statistically speaking, our all-sports combined winning percentage over the last four years was one of the worst runs in school history — especially if you remove track and cross country, which don’t have home meets.

But that’s part of the beauty of Maple Leaf games. Win or lose, they provide a place to scream like an idiot, in community with other (often random) people. And that screaming makes a difference to the players.

Tim Wilkening, a captain on the men’s soccer team, told me that when the players hear a rowdy student section, “it just gives us confidence — like, yeah, these people are behind us. They want to see us succeed. And I love it. I love it. … I think it makes the whole student athlete experience at Goshen College so much better.”

I talked with Chad Coleman, interim director of athletics, and he agreed. He said that a decade ago, visiting teams said that Goshen was their favorite place to play. Wilkening told me that he truly believes we’ve had the best student section in the Crossroads League, and I’ve had opposing players come up to me after the game — multiple times — and tell me the same thing.

I don’t want GC to lose that.

There have been some games and songs this year from the Leaf Pile that really made me smile. There is good work being done by students, and good support for teams at times.

And, to be fair, I’m gone forever from the Leaf Pile. I have no stake in it; I’ve left behind both my student status and my ragtag squirrel costume.

But I have a very different view of it now, from my spot in the press box or at the scorers’ table. I hope my observations are taken as just that — things I’ve seen this year. Nothing more, nothing less.

Maybe schedules are just horribly busy this year. Maybe Dash needs to show up more. Maybe everyone is OK with how things are, and I’m just an old head, overreacting and complaining.

But I did see that just five people sang “We Love You, Goshen,” to the players last Wednesday after the final whistle blew. And I also saw that not one of the five was a current GC student.

Daniel James ’24 is the news and media manager at Goshen College. A long time ago, he was the GC unofficial mascot and the 2022 GC Fan of the Year. He was executive editor of The Record in Spring 2024; before that, he served as the sports editor among other roles.