While sitting in the nearly empty stands watching a girls basketball away game last year, Xavier O’Boyle (12) wondered why he was one of the only Westview students there. The game was a playoff game against Del Norte, determining which team would make it to the open division final, yet lacked a student section there to support the team.
“They ended up losing, and I wondered what would’ve changed on the scoreboard if there were more people in the stands,” O’Boyle said. “That energy that the Black Hole creates really fuels the athletes on the court, and I wonder what would’ve been different if they had the same type of crowd that football gets.”
O’Boyle, who is an athlete himself understands firsthand the impact that support from the stands has on a player’s performance.
This year’s black hole leaders, O’Boyle, Ava Labrador (12), JJ Texeira (12) and Kaya Nepomuceno (12) all share the same vision: to increase Westview’s school spirit.
“One thing that all the leaders agreed on is we want to change the legacy of being a black hole leader by making it more than just support at football or boys basketball games,” O’Boyle said.
People tend to assume that the Black Hole is solely football-related, and has little to no associations with other sports.
“This year, we want to show the student body that the Black Hole doesn’t just disappear when football season ends,” Nepomuceno said.
O’Boyle said that Westview’s academically-focused environment has minimized the spirit amid minimal attendance at games.
“Compared to other schools in our district, Westview is very academically driven, and it’s hard to be athletically driven as well,” O’Boyle said.
At Westview football games, however, the student section is filled by the Black Hole.
“At our first home game of the season, everyone was decked out in black and gold,” O’Boyle said. “I could see from the front railing all the way back to the spectators booth, and it was just filled with black hole shirts.”
That same energy hasn’t carried over to the stands of other sports’ games. Sports such as volleyball, water polo, field hockey and lacrosse tend to have nearly empty stands, populated solely by parent supporters. This year’s Black Hole leaders plan on changing that.
This year, the leaders are focusing on one sport per season, and really trying to build spirit around it. For the fall, they chose girls volleyball and have been spreading awareness of the games in an effort to fill the stands. They hope that gradually, spirit will increase, and every sport will get the recognition that its players work for.
“Trying to change the Black Hole legacy isn’t something that we can do in a singular year, but we’re taking it step-by-step because that’s all that we can do,” O’Boyle said.
The four leaders devote time to making TikToks of the Black Hole and creating Instagram posts, hoping to get as many students to attend.
“By posting about each teams’ wins, we hope to show off how good the teams are, encouraging students to come to games,” Nepomuceno said.”
Despite their efforts, people have always been more willing to show up for Friday night football than they’ve been for any other Westview sport.
“We posted for a girls volleyball game four times and there were no more than 30 people in the student section,” O’Boyle said. “We posted once for the white-out football game, and there were hundreds of people in the stands.”
Every week, the black hole leaders coordinate which of them is going to which games that week. At least one leader is in the stands of each game, ensuring that every sport gets to experience a sliver of the Black Hole’s energy.
Leaders hope that their spirit will encourage other students to show up and be spirited.
“We, as leaders, can do our best to lead the students, but we can’t make them do anything,” O’Boyle said. “So as much as we ask people to show up and be spirited, they don’t owe us anything. We just hope that students want to give back that school spirit.”