Long representative of the rowdy, spirited student body, Crowd Control has led the student section through chants and cheers during games for years. But the upbeat and positive atmosphere that can be found at games was gone as Saturday night’s Twitter feeds were full of subtweets and direct confrontations between members of crowd control and other students. “Why aren’t you supporting girls basketball games as much as boys?” was the main question at the front of everyone’s mind, while members fumbled with conflicting responses and personal attacks. Unsatisfactory answers and an atmosphere of sexism that has existed in Crowd Control since its founding led the creation of a new Twitter account – “GIRLS Crowd Control.”  

The problem with Crowd Control is that it supports a system that has always favored boys sports and athleticism over girls. And Crowd Control doesn’t just support this system, it favors this system. Tweets long through the account’s history highlight the scores, the themes, and the match-ups for the boys basketball and football teams, while sporadically sprinkling in small doses of information of any other sports, and rarely including information on girls sports.

During the fall sports season, while Crowd Control made an effort to be at every football game, it largely ignored other sports that actually won more than one game. Where was the crowd when volleyball went to Substate? Where were the congratulatory tweets after gymnastics repeatedly scored highly in meets, eventually winning fourth in State? How many students know how well these teams (and others) did?

The blatantly sexist fact that each Crowd Control member is male hangs over every other small problem, suggesting that female students don’t have what it takes to lead their student section. Crowd Control demands the front row of every game it attends, and “reserves” the first four rows for other seniors. Instead of filling the stands based on dedicated fans who arrive early enough to get the best seats, Crowd Control pushes everyone else back to make way for its members and the other students it deems worthy enough to sit with them. Crowd Control members hold a unique responsibility to represent the school at sporting events, a responsibility that they only seem to acknowledge about when it pertains to basketball games or the beginning of a football game.  

To start to fix the problems within Crowd Control, it should include female members. Females are capable of enjoying and even playing sports, and the delicate female frame can actually handle the excitement of a basketball game.

Secondly, Crowd Control should better publicize other sporting events and make it a point to attend games outside of just football, basketball, and the occasional soccer game. Even tweeting out scores and future games, matches, or meets would better unite the student body and give credit to the athleticism and hard work that any sport requires.

Finally, Crowd Control should band together with GIRLS Crowd Control to create an environment inside of South that supports female sports. Crowd Control sets the tone for the student section as a whole and their influence does matter. Together the two can work to positively change the tone of Shawnee Mission South athletics. 

The basic premise of Crowd Control, which is to get the student body excited about sporting events, is a positive addition to the school. But we need to work together to remove the air of exclusivity and sexism that currently follows Crowd Control.