Upon finishing my last 100m stride, I prepare myself for the last cross-country meet of my high school career. The gun rises, my heart pounds, and sweat beads across my forehead as the shot rings in my ears. Taking off at a fast pace, my fellow runners and I begin to separate as the head pack. Reaching the base of the infamous Melendez Loop, I hear countless other teams screaming for their schools, shouting names and words of encouragement. Only after finishing the race did I realize nobody from my team had come to cheer me on.

This is what it’s like to be a JV athlete. As an ex-varsity cross-country runner, I have experienced both levels of competition. In all my years of running cross-country, I would have a supportive team, but only during my last year did I notice how differently the different level racers treat each other.

Varsity runners always have their team out on the course yelling at them to “keep it up” or “you’re doing great.” Apart from just feeling incredibly validating, it helps the athlete push themselves much harder than they would otherwise. In fact, the support of the team could be the difference between placing third and fourth in a highly competitive meet.

This discrepancy is found in nearly all other sports at the high school level. When you compare the support that comes out for the varsity team versus the JV team the difference is enormous.

For example, football, as we all know, discounting the huge difference in students, has the pep band and cheerleaders come out specifically to support them. During the JV football game, all I see are a couple underclassmen and parents.

In a study done in 2009, a group of college students studied the effects of cheerleading and the home field advantage of college football teams. The study proved that 60% of the teams playing at home outscored their opponents and teams scored approximately 3.5 points better than their average game.

Apart from the obvious fact that supporting your teammates should just be a thing you should do, it also helps the working athletes perform better.

So regardless of your level in your sport, go out and support your team. JV deserves just as much as respect as varsity; both groups are coming out to work hard and get better in an activity that is shared passion. Perhaps even next year we can get cheerleaders to come to cross-country or track meets —that would make all the athletes’ days.