Students at Washington upset by lack of football culture in SF

 As the high school football season starts up, students continue to be underwhelmed by the San Francisco football experience

By: Tessa Roznovsky

Heading into the 2024 season, some students at Washington High School believe their school district lacks football culture. They notice other districts with filled out stadiums, loud chants, and impressive amounts of school spirit, while football teams in San Francisco struggle to attract an audience. Many students at Washington are upset by this, and wish the city made high school football games into bigger events. They want to make a change by introducing more school spirit.

According to a 2023 San Francisco Chronicle report, most counties in California claim football as their most popular boys’ sport. San Francisco is an outlier and leans towards soccer. This absence of football superiority leaves some students feeling like they’re missing out on a major part of high school in the United States.

The lack of stadium lights may be partially responsible for the scarcity of interest in football. Many schools around the United States have Friday Night Lights, big football games with loud student sections on Friday nights. Since San Francisco public schools do not have field lights, all of their games have to be played in the daytime. This means that often games happen during school hours, or they’re on the weekend. This year, all of Washington’s games are on Saturdays during the day. Many students are busy, or simply are not willing to spend their weekend supporting their school. This might be part of the reason why Washington football games are so barren.

A couple of students were interviewed on the subject, offering their perspectives on how it feels, why it’s happening, and how it can be changed.

Cate Smith, a junior at Washington, is disappointed by the lack of excitement surrounding football at her school. She wishes San Francisco offered a more classic American high school experience, with big games and engaged fans. Instead, she reports the reality as “very empty,” along with feeling “very anticlimactic.”

However, she claims private schools do it better, stating that the annual Bruce Mahoney Game, between Sacred Heart and Saint Ignatius, is a “bigger deal.” She believes this collective enthusiasm is due to the big rivalry, which brings out the competitive side of the audience. 

In order to build more hype around public school teams, she suggests “making more competition between the schools.” Smith thinks that if you create competition, people will become more invested. “Make people proud of their school,” she says “rather than ashamed to admit that they like it.”

Sophia Manuel, a senior at Washington, feels largely the same. She is also saddened by the shortage of excitement around the sport, stating “we don’t have much school spirit. We’re not Texas, they’re a big football state.”  

When asked why football is less popular in San Francisco, she replied “we spend more time on soccer.” During the 2023-2024 school year, Washington held a parade for the boys soccer team after they won the state championship. Students filled the esplanade and watched as trucks full of players drove by, followed by the iconic Eagle mascot. Manuel elaborated, claiming “there’s a lot of spirit around those games.”

Overall, she described the high school football scene in San Francisco as “kind of depressing,” and thinks it can be improved if students are given a reason to go, like turning games into fundraisers or giving out free shirts. She also suggested games at night, rather than “in the middle of the day.” She thinks the atmosphere would be better, and students would be more willing to attend.

The lack of football dominance in San Francisco is a sharp contrast to a majority of the United States, where high school football teams rule entire towns. Washington students are hoping to see changes implemented, and a new era full of fun football games soon.