On Friday, Nov. 4, the football team lost their IHSA regional game against St. Charles East at the Northfield campus with student attendance at an all-time low.

According to student social media, a possible reason for this was the breatherlizer tests at the gates leading into the stadium.

However, Assistant Principal Scott Williams didn’t see a connection between the breathalyzer test and the sparse turnout. “Maybe the attendance was less because there were so many students who weren’t at school that day because of the Cubs rally,” he said. “I can understand how somebody could make that correlation, but I have no knowledge of that.”

Regardless of the reason, the difference in attendance was apparent to those who did make it in. Senior Emma Hoholik, a spectator at the game, was disappointed by the lack of energy in the crowd.

“The audience seemed a little downtrodden,” she said. “With the amount of people there, the student section wasn’t as outgoing as it’s been in the past.”

The football players were dismayed by the lack of students as well. “We thought that because it was our last home game it would be the best fan turnout of the year,” said senior Chris Notari. “As our team ran out onto the field our hearts sunk looking into the student section and seeing seven fans.”

Notari was also discouraged by St. Charles’s spirited student section. “The Saints’ student section was completely filled, blasting music and yelling chants,” he said. “The worst part about it was reading the sign they hung on the fence. It read ‘Saints Territory,’ and that’s exactly what it felt like to our team, like we were playing at their house.”

Hoholik also noticed the energy in the opponents’ crowd. “The St. Charles student section was super prepared. They definitely had a lot more people than us,” she said.

The team lost the game 17-10, which may or may not have been connected to the lack of attendance that night.

“With the lack of energy and support, our team was not able to recover from turnovers and other big plays,” said Notari. “If we had our student section, my teammates and I believe that we would have won that game.”

However, junior Jacob Levy, a wide receiver and defensive back, didn’t see such a correlation. “We shot ourselves in the foot,” he said. “When you practice four days prior, it’s hard to make the excuse that it all came down to fan attendance.”

Both players believed that this situation could have been avoided by the school administration. “This whole year students have come to our games without being hassled, but the New Trier administration decided to change all that right before our last home game,” said Notari. “They could have sent out an email to the students or made some announcement prior to the game.”

Levy agreed. “It’s a fair thing to do, but obviously it reduces turnout, which was disappointing to us, especially if the students weren’t going to pose a threat to anyone,” he said.

Another decision that potentially lowered spectator attendance was the enforcement of a new rule that kids in 8th grade or below had to have parent supervision while attending the game.

Although many may not think of middle school fans as a critical source of energy for the game, Notari said that the team missed their spirit.

“The players on the team love giving the kids high-fives as we run off the field at the end of the 2nd quarter and onto the field before the start of the 3rd quarter, but that didn’t happen,” he said. “Because of two new rules that the New Trier administration implemented, we lost fans, support, and energy.”

Williams stood by these decisions. “We have the right to create a safe environment for every event, and we wanted to make sure we did that at this event,” he said.

Despite the setbacks, the team still played strong in their last game of the season.

“Our defense played the best game we have played our whole year,” said Notari. “We had four turnovers and held them to a season low of 17 points.”

He attributed the result to a weakness in the team’s offense that day. “Our offense struggled,” said Notari. “We can’t put the blame on them, but in order for a team to win a game like that, we need to excel on both sides of the ball, and that just didn’t happen.”

Levy was also disappointed with the end to the team’s season. “That wasn’t how we wanted it to end,” he said. “We were a much better team than that.”