It’s time to bring back night football games.

For three years now, the common question remains, why can’t we have night football games? Boyle Stadium is arguably the best stadium in the FCIAC, however we never put its bright lights to use. Almost all other FCIAC schools have night football games. Our student section is growing, but it has not yet reached its full potential. Friday night lights games would unite the student body and encourage everyone to show up and support the school. 

The argument against night games is that they lead to fights. However, the last night football game held at Boyle was three years ago. Therefore, those responsible for these fights are most likely no longer here. Stamford High School has an almost entirely different student body now, then they did at that point. Why can’t the current student body be given a chance?

So far this football season, it has proven to be difficult to fill the stands for these 12 p.m. or 1 p.m. games, but a 7 p.m. game for example would attract many more students, increasing our school spirit. In a discussion with my friend Brady O’Sullivan, who happens to be a “Student Section Leader,” she said, “I think that the student section needs that extra encouragement to actually attend games and a 7 p.m. Friday night game sounds much more appealing than a 12 p.m. Saturday game.”

Again, most schools in the FCIAC host football games at night. I asked Staples High School Cheerleading Captain Ava Bakaleinik for her opinion on their night games. Bakaleinik said, “As someone who has cheered at both Friday night games and Saturday day games, I definitely prefer night games. On Friday nights we have over 1,000 people come to our games and pack the stands to their capacity but on Saturday nobody shows up.” She added, “ Absolutely nothing compares to a Friday night football game. It’s not only the entire school that comes together to support our football team but also most of the town. The team only gets stronger through the continued support of the fans. People are much busier on weekends than they are on Friday nights which just opens up an opportunity for people to make their way to our stadium.”

Seniors are the only class that has ever experienced a night football game at Stamford High, and we only had one of them. Watching the other towns around us have night games when we aren’t allowed to doesn’t help our school spirit. If we are allowed to have school events at night such as dances, why can’t we have games? I know I speak for a lot of the student body when I say we at least deserve a chance at having night games. A punishment to still stand from those who came before us just doesn’t make sense.