“When the Bates team comes out, everyone hold up the newspapers and act like you’re bored,” instructed AhDream Smith ’12, facing the parents in the stands for the men’s basketball game against Bates last Saturday. Smith handed out a dozen newspapers to a crowd of mostly parents, with a few students on the periphery. The parents laughed and follow her lead, pretending to read the newspapers as the Bates team was announced, and cheering when the Cardinals emerged.

Smith watched the game intently, shouting, “Defense,” “Rebound,” and “Go Wes!” and screaming words of encouragement during the free throws. She paused to discuss one player’s progress with a parent sitting behind her, and noted, “We’re not playing! Maybe they’re tired from the game last night.”

Despite being the lone enthusiastic student voice cheering on the team for this game, Smith’s efforts were a success – Wesleyan won the game. The previous night, she had gathered a large crowd of students, but the team lost by only one point.

“Last night, the Wesleyan section was poppin,’” Smith said. “I think the reason the game was so close was the number of people that were there.”
Smith is the founder of WesPep, a student group that aims to support athletes by luring students to games and leading them in cheers and chants. Smith, who started the group last fall, is from Tennessee. There, she said, going to games on the weekends was a part of the culture—people went to support their friends, but it was also a social event. She said she chose Wesleyan primarily for academics, but she was taken aback by the lack of school spirit and outward support for sports.

“It was a big surprise,” said Smith. “I was hurt, I felt like I had been deceived.  I’ve never had to pull this hard for people to come out. [In high school], our football team wasn’t the best, but people still came out—it was more of a social experience.”

WesPep’s activities include making banners for the teams and decorating the stands and locker rooms. For Homecoming, the group created a banner for the football team to run through; neither the alumni organization, the athletics department nor the administration had anything to do with it. For the Homecoming game, WesPep also threw t-shirts at the crowd and decorated the locker room.

While many students sport Wesleyan gear and take pride in many aspects of the University, including famous alumni, a beautiful campus and many academic and social offerings, this often does not translate into student turnout for games. Here, at least, Smith goes against the grain by attending a game every week. Although this is expected at many other schools, it takes courage to be the only student cheering loudly at a Cardinal game.

“It’s ironic, because at Wesleyan, you’re supposed to be able to be yourself and be accepted, but people are still self-conscious,” Smith said. “I don’t care that I’m the only one cheering; I’m not afraid of what other people think about me. But other people need more people to be at a greater comfort level.”

Although 60 people signed up during the activities fair, only a handful showed up to the first meeting. Along with Smith, the group’s four currently active members include Jessica Clark ’12, Nikolas Owens ’12 and Roynan Krebs ’11. They are occasionally able to round up more support, but frequently they are the only ones.

Clark said she joined WesPep because she has a good time at the games and it’s not a big time commitment. She said it’s rewarding to hear the athletes’ appreciation for the banners, a sign that their efforts pay off.

“I’ve been to previous games where [the basketball team] loses by a wide margin, and there is no one cheering,” said Clark. “So I do think we make a big difference.  On Friday, it was about to be halftime and everyone was going crazy and screaming. I think that gave the player more confidence because he shot the ball from half-court and made it in.”
The underlying goal of WesPep, however, is not only to allure more students into the stands, but also to break down athlete-non-athlete divide. According to Smith, while Wesleyan admissions pamphlets may flaunt a student body with diversity of backgrounds and opinions, cliques still form and rarely mix. She cited DKE, which is not open to non-athletes. At the same time, many students boast that they have never been to a game or sung the Fight Song.

“There’s a lot of different divides and cliques at Wesleyan,” Clark said. “It’s not really the image you expect when you come here.”
Smith envisions expanding WesPep and attending more games in the future. She hopes that by bringing some more school spirit to games, the group will generate more unity within the student population.

“Wesleyan lacks community in terms of coming together,” Smith said. “People have their own individual communities, but not as a campus. I feel like if [athletes] saw the school cared about what they did, it would break down those barriers and maybe athletes would come to more dance performances and plays. Everybody should support everybody.”