There are five core values at Gustavus. They include: community, excellence, faith, justice, and service. Student athletes are expected to represent the college on and off campus by exemplifying these values.
According to D. Stanley Eitzen author of Sports in Contemporary Society: An Anthology, college sports tend to be “ultraelitist,” meaning that money and facilities go disproportionately to athletes in revenue-producing sports rather than to the less popular sports.
Some athletes may feel like they receive a fair amount of attention, but Eitzen’s theory about “ultraelitist” college sports seems to apply to many Gustavus athletes. Athletic teams that travel off campus feel as if they rarely get the recognition they deserve for representing the college to the best of their abilities.
“People know less about how our team does, but since we are off campus, it is hard for people to know our schedule and when our home meets are,” Junior Golfer Jordan Drenttel said.
Successes of the less-recognized teams aren’t communicated with the community of Gustavus, even if they have a better record than the more popular teams. For example, many students are unaware that the Gustavus Women’s Cross Country team and the Men’s Golf team won MIAC titles in 2012, and both teams made an appearance at Nationals.
“I don’t think a lot of people knew, and I don’t think our team as a whole got a lot of attention for accomplishing it. [Competing at Nationals] was surprising and even if people knew that we had, they didn’t know the full story behind it,” Junior Cross Country and Track Athlete Caitlin Fermoyle said.
The majority of student athletes who are members of less-recognized teams on campus explain that they do not compete specifically to be recognized, but for the love of their sport. The issue is that athletes who have accomplished great things in their field aren’t celebrated enough on campus.
“Last year, our men’s golf team went to Nationals and just blew everyone out of the water at Conference. [Alumni] Alex Kolquist went nine under over three days, which is something you see on the pro tour. I don’t know how many other people actually knew about it,” Drenttel said.
One recent event that frustrated many athletes was the failure to give all teams equal recognition in public events, such as the Homecoming Pep Fest. As President Jack Ohle announced which fall sports were representing Gustavus in the fall of 2013, he listed off every team except the Cross Country teams.
“Jack Ohle was announcing the teams and even called out baseball. They’re not even in season. Club teams were also called up, so I was definitely frustrated that we weren’t included,” Junior Cross Country and Track Athlete Leighton Becher said.
As if the President of the College overlooking a team on campus wasn’t careless enough, recent renovations in the Lund Center have also disregarded specific teams.
The weight room in Lund has recently been altered in multiple ways, with only certain teams in mind. Each wall was covered in photos of athletes and fans, however only the already well-known teams on campus were represented.
“We found out right away that Women’s Golf is not represented in the weight room. There’s one men’s golfer shown and it’s just him, and I don’t know who he is. It’s an older photo of just one alumni,” Junior Golfer Lauren Johnson said.
Individual athletes and whole teams feel as if they were disregarded in the recent changes to Lund Center. The renovations seem to show favoritism from the people who designed it.
“It’s a place that our team uses frequently, and it would be nice to see our team included with the others. The weight room is used by all of the athletes on campus and the collage should reflect that,” Junior Nordic Skiier Megan Allen said.
“It’s disheartening to see everyone else’s pictures up there with their plaques, when last year [Women’s Cross Country] won the MIAC for the first time in nine years, and we went to Nationals. We had people there supporting our team and had photos, but the same sports are shown over and over again,” Senior Cross Country and Track Athlete Olivia Crane said.
The women’s soccer team has also recognized that, unlike the men, they were only represented through a photograph of one female soccer player.
Sports that were diminished by the collage noticed right away and had strong opinions on the matter.
“I understand that football and hockey players primarily use the weight room and that it is more male-oriented, but we [Women’s Golf] do have a lifting program. I think it would be more motivating for us if we were shown somewhere up there,” Johnson said.
Every team has at least one competition within reasonable distance from campus, and therefore there is no excuse for not covering the events these athletes have competed in.
“I was actually really mad when we walked in [the weight room]. We have a home meet that they take photos at so there were definitely pictures around that they could have used,” Senior Cross Country and Track Athlete Joe Renier said.
The collage was specifically designed to portray Gustie spirit, and focused solely on spectator-friendly sports. The truth is, not all sports at Gustavus are spectator-friendly. Eliminating sports that can’t be supported at their site of competition in public displays on campus underappreciates those athletes.
Even though those in charge of publicity of athletics at Gustavus have made improvements from previous years, such actions were clearly not taken lightly. Student athletes have noticed differences between certain modes of communication and believe that certain strategies are much more effective than others.
“[Athletic Director Tom Brown] ‘Brownie’ is definitely making an effort, and I really like seeing that,” Crane said.
Social media is now a large part of communication among the Gustavus community. It is a new way to share results and sports news, but this sharing of information can still be improved upon.
“I have noticed that on Twitter, Gustavus Athletics sometimes gives play by plays of football and hockey, but they just don’t say much about how our golf teams have done,” Drenttel said.
Many hope that Gustavus will continue to find ways of releasing information about every team in the future.
“It’s easy for the focus to be on more spectator friendly and popular sports, but I think it’s important to expose people to other sports and other athletic teams at this school. It would be nice not to hear, ‘wait… we have a Nordic ski team here?’” Allen said.