At games, clap like you mean it

It's that time of year when people will pack high school gyms to watch basketball, and I would like to suggest an audience recalibration. Or, in many people's cases, a calibration. The vast majority of fans do not applaud during the introduction of opposing teams and coaches.

Now some may say my observations are not accurate. I attend enough sporting events, though, and the phenomenon I observe is pervasive and indelible. If you are in a gym where robust applause for the other team routinely happens, I assert your gym is an anomaly.

This lack-of-applause behavior is inhospitable and unneighborly while reeking like a skunk of poor taste and maybe poor upbringing. It even signals being cut from inferior cloth.

Are we such tunnel vision fans that we cannot embrace the whole community experience, instead retracting into pustulant insularity? Are we so insecure about our own team's athletic prowess that we dare not fuel the opponent's mental momentum with any hearty cheers directed their way? Are we so inconvenienced in turning away from our stale and mundane chatter (which we misinterpret as fresh and profound conversation) that we cannot muster a few dozen more claps?

It's not like we are cheering at a bitter, partisan battle. The game is not the Visigoths versus the Vandals, nor the Hatfields and McCoys. These are grand interactions of commendable communities (or collaborations) — all with some level of memorable pasts and promising futures. This is Oelwein and Monticello; Moravia and Centerville; Forest City and Storm Lake; Clarinda and Stanton; and OABCIG and MVAOCOU.

If we cannot put down our phones for two minutes and focus our attention on the opposing players who work hard, prepare, grow and give what they've got to this sporting contest, then we can only claim pettiness and superficiality. No one will believe that we are there for the athleticism, the sport, the community building and the gamesmanship. No one will believe we are present for the effort and the excellence, no matter which athletes provide it.

If, on the other hand, we can celebrate and recognize all the participants, that talent positions us for greater things. We become fans rather than sectarian hacks. We become neighbors again. We become school assets, maybe even super boosters. We build community. We ignite civic energy. Heck, we might even spark some regional development.

When we celebrate and embrace the event, we commune with age-old sports narratives like the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, Casey at the bat, miracles on ice, Cinderella runs, called shots, threepeats, and the love of the game.

When we sincerely applaud the other team, we transcend "I hope my kid starts" and "We need to win tonight" — both understandable sentiments — and access "for the love of the game."

Our kid can start or we can win the contest and we can still engage for the love of the game. That's the beauty of genuine audience sportsmanship. It's win-win rather than us/them.

Patrick Muller lives in Hills.