There aren’t any athletes at DVC dropping the ball, just students. The football team has smoothly earned a record of 7-2, and yet the stands remain sparsely inhabited during home games in Pleasant Hill.

So what’s the big deal? Football isn’t for everybody. But what of the other 16 sports teams that bear the green and white? Surely you could find one team that would be a suitable distraction from the monotonies of academia.

It’s wise to recognize the breadth of our department for two reasons:

The first is selfish, that being our unique privilege of choosing from a plethora of sports teams to follow.

We have 17 sports teams to cheer for at DVC. That’s over twice as many as at Contra Costa College, and far greater than the six at Los Medanos College.

“I would encourage students who are waiting between classes to wander down south of the duck pond and see one of our many fantastic teams competing,” said DVC Athletic Director Christine Worsley.

The second premise is economic and remarkable.

Already strapped for cash, DVC receives a third of the sports budget from the Contra Costa Community College district. To be clear, DVC receives the same amount of money as Los Medanos and Contra Costa College and yet we fund 17 competitive teams in Pleasant Hill.

Head basketball coach Steve Cocclimiglio has coached at DVC for 22 years. He offered this insight: “You have to be in this for the right reasons and really love it, and if you do then it’s not a problem, you just know there are going to be days where you have to find the money for equipment or balls and it’s not going to be just laying around for you.”

The blatant truth is that DVC does more with less. The transfer rates do justice to explaining the quality of the academic sector.But when compared with the paltry subsidies received by our athletic department, it’s no wonder we don’t celebrate our teams with the jubilation of a Pac-12 tailgate.

As a student body, we are already so fortunate to receive the amenities that we do. It’s time we paid our fair share. Not simply to raise money for the college, but to invest in the rich product that is DVC athletics. Just last year, 25 football players went on to play at universities based solely on the coaching and teaching they received while at DVC.

It’s time we owned up to the blessing and displayed some vigilance in our support of Vikings sports. DVC’s classrooms can quite capably fool you into thinking you’re at a university, but with a little assistance from the fan base, the illusion could spread to the stadium.