On September 13th, 2024, The MSW Huskies faced-off against the Valley Regional Warriors and lost by a score of 23-13. The Huskies had beat the Warriors in the season prior, 54-34. As different as the scores were from last year to this year, something more concerning was the recent drop of activity in the Dog Pound. Highlighting an up and down turnout for The Pound this season.
The Dog Pound had been facing some distress as of late with a rocky start to the football season. Although the district does not keep track of overall attendance, they do however keep track of booster passes. The booster pass is an item you can purchase and have eligibility to use for all three sports seasons. With this being said, the use of booster passes for the first home game of the 2023 season was 155, the use of booster passes during the first home game of the 2024 season were only 89.
Senior Josh Nobitz, the unofficial Dog Pound senior leader, has been trying to bring the Pound back to its former glory with the recency of being named best student section in the state by “Student Section Report” in 2023-24 academic year. The dog pound was named this after its booming success concluding the 2023-24 sports season. A huge highlight that stuck out in the past was the 2024 Shoreline Championship basketball game. The Pound had an outstanding turnout compared to the first game of the season.
Although the student section has been facing some problems. They have recently started to pick it up, with the last two home games turning out to be a big success in terms of high numbers. For example, the 2024 Homecoming game where booster passes saw an increase in usage hitting 165. Freshman Cameron Mails who went to the game stated, ¨I can’t really say anything bad about it, the stands were packed.¨
Sophomore Gavin Clow said, “I think the student section size was good, but beyond the fourth row the majority of people were not chanting and were not as loud as the people in the first four rows.”
This isn’t only an issue for Morgan but teams at the collegiate level. A study done by Harvard Sports Analysis showed that teams in college football who play in big games against bigger and better teams tend to attract a bigger crowd size. This being especially the case when the crowd knows the home team is going to win prior to the game. An argument can also be made for the consistency in attendance for teams with a losing record. Teams in college seemed to face an 8% increase in overall stadium capacity when having a winning season and or playing big teams.
High expectations are set for the rest of the 2024 sports seasons.
