The closure of winter sports marked a controversial season regarding student section expectations, but despite that, the Griffins were awarded the Currency Class B Sportsmanship Award, an award given to schools for exemplary sportsmanship during games, at the end of the Nebraska School Activities Association Class B State Girls Basketball Championship on March 8.
“I was kind of surprised at first,” senior Mason Loberg said. “The admin tried their best to hold us back [from certain chants], but at the end of the day, I was grateful we were able to receive this award.”
While this was a notable achievement, students and community members expressed their frustration throughout the winter sports season regarding what the student section could and could not do. One game that illustrated this, in particular, was the subdistrict boys’ basketball game against Gretna High School on Feb. 26.
According to Gretna East Athletic Director Ryan Garder, Gretna High students yelled, “airball,” which was quickly shut down by Gretna administrators. This caused Gretna East parents to be upset since the Griffin student section isn’t allowed to use that chant. Parents were further angered when, after the Dragons made an airball, the East student section yelled “airball” back but were once again shut down by administrators.
Following the game, administrators’ “shutting down” of students’ chants led to widespread backlash on social media. One voice of the voices of frustrations belongs to that of Mitch Sherman, Nebraska Correspondent for The Athletic and Griffin parent, who took his thoughts to the social media platform X.
“I was at the game and saw it all,” Sherman wrote in his Feb. 26 tweet. “The admin’s hypersensitive actions overshadowed a postseason rivalry game. It sucked the atmosphere out of a gym that should have been electric. It ruined the experience for Gretna East students who were threatened and repeatedly admonished for normal fan behavior- cheering a missed shot, counting an opponent’s steps after fouling out, booing a bad call. The students never crossed the line. The admin has a responsibility to ensure its school upholds sportsmanship. What I saw was misguided and badly missed that mark.”
The post gained traction as it was viewed by 139 thousand X users, liked by over 300 and retweeted 37 times. Following the post, GPS district officials reached out to Sherman.
“I also received an explanation from the district about its longstanding policy against derisive cheers,” Sherman said. “I support GPS and GEHS administrators in their decision to prohibit offensive cheers and personal attack. I’ve seen this kind of behavior from other student sections, and it doesn’t belong in high school sports. But several of the actions banned in Gretna should not be categorized as offensive or attacking, in my opinion. They are simply fun. I’ve never heard of a varsity-level high school athlete bothered by an ‘airball’ chant or a student section that chants ‘you can’t do that. ’”
Despite the opinion voiced by Sherman, administrators have cited district policy for their philosophy behind the actions taken during the game.
“We have one rule each year: positively cheer for your team, not negatively against the officials or the other team. Anything that doesn’t fall in that category is going to be a ‘no,’” Garder said. “Everybody in the stands has a different line. We’re saying, as a school district, we’re not going to allow it, and that’s our line in the sand.”
And despite some fans’ perception, Gretna High abides by the same policy and has had to deal with backlash for that before.
“The biggest issue that I have dealt with here at GHS is when opposing teams start to chant or do things during our games that we do not allow our student section to do,” Gretna High Activities Director Matthew Curtis said. “We are Gretna High School, and that is not how we want our student section to represent our school.”
In addition to having the same rules, Gretna High and Gretna East have similar methods of communication for student section expectations through MTSS lessons, emails at the start of each season and talking to students at the game. However, the lack of consistent communication between administration and students of expectations has led to discrepancies.
“When I hear things like we’re not allowed to cheer, that’s not true,” Garder said, “and that admittedly is a little bit on me to actively communicate.”
Realizing the expectations need to be more accessible to all student attendees, the Gretna East administration collaborated with some students to come up with a running list of approved chants for students to use at Griffin athletic events.
Ultimately, with the mass communication and clarity of these expectations, administrators plan to uphold the same practice regarding students’ sportsmanlike behavior in the student section in the upcoming spring sports season and beyond.“Other schools have different rules for different things, and I will not apologize for holding the student at Gretna Public Schools to a high standard,” Garder said.
