The Audience Experience at AOF Athletic Events | Boarding School Blog | About Us | Avon Old Farms

Students in Tiziana Rozzo's digital photography class took on a photojournalism project that tasked them with telling a story through images. Throughout the summer, we’ll be sharing some of those projects. Today we hear from Ryan Yu ’29, who captured the experience and impact of being a spectator at an Avon sporting event.

After coming to Avon from China for my freshman year, one of the things that stood out to me was the crowd at sporting events. I began trying to capture the crowd with my camera to show the experience of a spectator.

Audiences reveal various emotions during a sporting event. As a photographer, when I was shooting the hockey game on my school campus, the emotions of the crowd were changing throughout the game, and most of the emotions are extremely influential to other people. For example, I discovered that when the team was winning, the reaction of the audience was cheering, screaming, and jumping. However, when the team was losing, the audience was likely to remain silent and hold their fists, because they were worried about the team.

The vibe of the audience is important because it indirectly affects the attitude of the players. I noticed that if fans trash-talked the players that we were playing, sometimes they could be annoyed and knock on the glass back at the crowd. Meanwhile, cheering always makes the team end up better, as the audience helps the players to gain confidence.

After shooting the audience’s facial emotion from the opposite side. I moved to within the crowd and tried to take more detailed photos within the audience. My roommate Bo Brian ’29 was super excited watching the game with his friends, so I reached out to him and started an interview to get another perspective on what it’s like to be part of the Avon Army.

Right as I started interviewing him, our hockey team scored. He turned to his friends and cheered with them, sharing the moment. The emotion is super enthusiastic. It was the iconic “Pink the Rink” game, so everyone including him was wearing pink clothing.

With the enthusiasm comes lots of noise. The loudest moment was when Avon scored or the goalie made an incredible save. Everyone was screaming and chanting to cheer for the players. The Avon Army is one of the best student-fan sections in the country.

Bo plays football, so I asked him about how the crowd reactions impact his playing. “I feel extremely good every time they cheer for me, because I know there are people supporting me and they want me to succeed as much as I do,” Bo told me.

In the spring, I experienced this from the player’s perspective. When I’m playing tennis, if someone is cheering for me and clapping for me as I win a point, I’m likely to feel more confident and perform better throughout the game.

To sum up, the vibe of the audience can affect the performance of the player in a game, and it’s an important factor besides winning and losing. The emotions of a spectator are real, and so is their impact on the outcome.

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