Have you ever been to a sporting event at Guilford? Probably not.
If you have, you most likely realized that there were not that many other students accompanying you in the crowd. People do not get too excited at Guilford when it comes to sports. There are no campus-wide parties on game days, pep rallies, or people painted in school colors.
Guilford does not attract enough spirited people to form a cheerleading squad. Most students here do not even know when games are played or who won the game. My parents have told me about Guilford’s games and who won before I knew about it. Lacrosse player Aaron Reeves believes “that everyone here [at Guilford] is a pacifist and no one sees a need to compete.” There is much truth to this quote. Passive people usually find no need to compete, so why should they support a competition? Besides, Guilford is not exactly known for its aggressive nature and competitive attitude.

No one that goes to Guilford is going on a sports scholarship, and no one can seriously be going here to seek a professional career in sports. It is not surprising though, that a Quaker school does not attract students who are interested in sports.

Coming together to watch two teams “go at it” and becoming all wrapped up in anger towards an opposing team is not very Quaker-like in some people’s minds. The widely accepted attitude at Guilford – to get along with everyone – clashes greatly with the competitive nature of sports. Other than the fact that sports differ from the majority of student’s beliefs, most of Guilford’s students simply do not care about sports. “People who come to Guilford aren’t sports oriented. There are the jocks and then there’s everybody else, and everybody else doesn’t give a rat’s a** [about sports],” said first-year student Cassie Graham.
First-year football player Tripp Isenhour agrees with Graham on the reason why sports are not highly supported at Guilford. “I went to a couple of baseball practices, but I haven’t been to any games (other than football). The main reason people do not go to games [at Guilford] is because people here do not care about sports.”

Whatever the reason, sports – with the exception of women’s basketball, which seems to be gaining some support – are not highly acclaimed at Guilford. We have enough interested students to have sports teams, but not enough to have an audience for sports.

Without fans, sports cannot thrive. Fans set the atmosphere at sporting events. If Guilford’s sports players are hearing more cheers for the opposing team than for themselves, they may become disheartened.

A team will not win if no one cares.
Sports at Guilford are in a downward spiral unless a newfound love for sports arises in the Guilford community, which is not too likely anytime soon.