Why Iona should promote all of its sports teams

On the little shelf above my desk sits a letter board, decorated with photos, Iona basketball tickets and a quote that I love. But most importantly, it has the letters BGE – Big Gael Energy. It was a phrase I came up with that was a spin-off of another joke. If you ask my friends and family, they’ll agree that I have the biggest Gael Energy they’ve ever seen. My love for Iona runs deep, and I love being able to represent the maroon and gold. Living on campus has also allowed me to experience an entirely new level of Gael Energy: Iona Basketball games.

Basketball, by all degrees, is probably Iona’s best-known and most popular sport, and it’s earned that reputation for a good reason. The men’s team has won three back-to-back Metro Atlantic Athletic Conferences, the legendary three-peat. The games are electric – from the dance teams to pep band and the shouting of the crowd, my throat always hurts after a game.

But I realized something was a little off depending on what game I go to. The mid-afternoon weekend games are usually pretty quiet compared to the 7 p.m. games. It makes sense, more people would probably prefer to go to a game at night rather than at 1 p.m. on a Sunday. But the games for the women’s basketball team have even less attendance and much less hype around them.

I try to go to every game that I can, but most of the advertising goes to the men’s team. I try to go to the newly promoted “GaelGate” events that are before games. That said, the first GaelGate promoted for the women’s team was tagged on to the bottom of a “This Week at Iona” email. I had heard about it and went to it because of a friend on the dance team who was talking about it. I saw no advertising for the next GaelGate to promote the women’s team.

But the GaelGate for the men’s team? I saw the little papers on the tables of each dining hall, I got an email about it, I sat in Spellman while tickets were being given out for the men’s game and promoted the GaelGate later that night.

So what’s the difference? I think a lot of people have a poor view of the women’s team. I’ve spoken to people who say that the women’s team isn’t as good and the games aren’t worth going to, but they’ve never even been to one. The women’s team may not have a three-peat on their hands, but why shouldn’t they get some hype? Why not bring out some of that amazing Gael Energy to the women’s games? Why don’t we advertise the women’s games to the same level as the men’s games?

Look, I am very far from being someone who is super passionate about sports, and I am even further from being athletic. My love for Iona extends to my fellow Gaels who dedicate themselves to their sport and who work hard to master their skills. But I struggle to be able to support my fellow Gaels because every promotional event or hype material that I see is for the men’s basketball team.

I want to see our Gaels rock the MAAC for the fourth time in a row and bring home another trophy. But I also want to see the hype for every other amazing team we have. The women’s volleyball team had an insanely good season and came home with the first MAAC championship for the team in 15 years. I have residents who are on the softball team, the women’s water polo team and the women’s rowing team. I have friends on the men’s rowing team and on the lacrosse team. I want to support them and get just as stupidly excited as I do when the announcer at the men’s basketball game yells that E.J. Crawford scored a three-pointer.

If we’re being honest, our Gael Energy isn’t being evenly distributed. If Gaels are going to help fellow Gaels, we should show up and shout out when they have games, when they have victories and even when they have hard fought losses – and that should be across every sport, whether men’s or women’s.