At what point is it creepy to go to highschool sporting events?

• Devils Advocate

  

  Everybody sees the old men hanging out in the endzone corner, bitching about the same things year in and year out.
  
  I have seen men wear their varsity jackets as much as 20 years after they graduated.
  
  If you are going there to perv on the little girls, I can understand it somewhat, but if you don't have a kid in the program, cheerleader, band ect. Don't you think it gets a little creepy to lurk and troll at the stadium and on the high school forums?
  
  What point do you stop being a fanatic and turn spastic????
• hasbeen

  

  When you're buying jerseys of your favorite 16 year old.
• se-alum

  

  I think alot of the high school games are more social events as much as they are sporting events. I grew up at a small school, and most everyone went to the football and basketball games for the social factor.
• FatHobbit

  

  I don't know if it's creepy to go, but the people who yell insults at kids on the field make me laugh. (or yell at the coach to put their kid in)
• Raw Dawgin' it

  

  when you're not watching your kids play
• Thinthickbigred

  Our HS team is the entertainment in the county and we get several thousand people at every game and draw more at some games then some major league baseball teams do . I stopped wearing my Varsity jacket after I graduated . that would be embarrasing . Football in Steubenville is an event . Its a great time because our guys are tough and athletic . Most HS games are a drag with little athletisism ,hitting and, play calling .
• Fly4Fun

  

  I disagree with the premise. When you graduate from high school you should no longer attend HS sporting events unless you have a close friend or relative (or eventually your own kids) still on it or you are back for an alumni function.
  
  But once you get so old, there is nothing else to do and you want to go watch local football or basketball it seems to become acceptable again.
  
  However, if you're in your 20's, 30's, 40's even 50's and you have nothing better to do (unless you fall into one of the previously mentioned exceptions) it's just weird in my opinion. However, there is another exception and you life in a small town with nothing else going on and it is THE social function then okay.
• fortfan

  So..I live in a town where the basketball team is ranked in the top ten in the state……I like to watch the games…..but I shouldn't go anymore because it is seen by some as "creepy"?
• fortfan

  I'd say half the people that go to our games are "creepy" then.
• Fly4Fun

  

  fortfan;1093904 wrote:So..I live in a town where the basketball team is ranked in the top ten in the state……I like to watch the games…..but I shouldn't go anymore because it is seen by some as "creepy"?

  There's probably better entertainment else where. A top 10 in state basketball team doesn't really mean too much when it comes to total talent. If it was a top 10 in country with 1 or 2 potential College/NBA stars then I could buy that argument. For example, I wouldn't fault anyone for going to watch SVSM when LeBron was there. But that's a rare exception.
  
  Leave HS to the students going there and the parents/relatives supporting them.
• fortfan

  Fly4Fun;1093909 wrote:There's probably better entertainment else where. A top 10 in state basketball team doesn't really mean too much when it comes to total talent. If it was a top 10 in country with 1 or 2 potential College/NBA stars then I could buy that argument. For example, I wouldn't fault anyone for going to watch SVSM when LeBron was there. But that's a rare exception.
  
  Leave HS to the students going there and the parents/relatives supporting them.

  Why?
• Mulva

  

  I don't really see anything creepy about it.
• queencitybuckeye

  I think it's less a function of age and more a function of its place in your life. High school hopefully was a great time in your life, but how sad it is that it's actually the best time of some people's lives. Those are the creepy ones, those who hang on to something they should have moved on from years or decades ago.
• WebFire

  Fly4Fun;1093903 wrote:I disagree with the premise. When you graduate from high school you should no longer attend HS sporting events unless you have a close friend or relative (or eventually your own kids) still on it or you are back for an alumni function.
  
  But once you get so old, there is nothing else to do and you want to go watch local football or basketball it seems to become acceptable again.
  
  However, if you're in your 20's, 30's, 40's even 50's and you have nothing better to do (unless you fall into one of the previously mentioned exceptions) it's just weird in my opinion. However, there is another exception and you life in a small town with nothing else going on and it is THE social function then okay.

  This is incredibly stupid.
• Raw Dawgin' it

  

  WebFire;1093925 wrote:This is incredibly stupid.

  did you not see who posted it? lol
• said_aouita

  

  Fly4Fun;1093903 wrote:I disagree with the premise. When you graduate from high school you should no longer attend HS sporting events unless you have a close friend or relative (or eventually your own kids) still on it or you are back for an alumni function.
  
  But once you get so old, there is nothing else to do and you want to go watch local football or basketball it seems to become acceptable again.
  
  However, if you're in your 20's, 30's, 40's even 50's and you have nothing better to do (unless you fall into one of the previously mentioned exceptions) it's just weird in my opinion. However, there is another exception and you life in a small town with nothing else going on and it is THE social function then okay.

  WebFire;1093925 wrote:This is incredibly stupid.

  No kidding.
• Fly4Fun

  

  I've had one person just with a blanket question "why". What the why is specifically asking about I don't know.
  
  Then another poster responds with just a random insult. Care to expand upon your original thought? It's my opinion, try to convince me otherwise (isn't that the point of a message board). I'm willing to budge if you give me a good reason. But from my point of view, there is little reason for an adult to be attending a HS athletic event.
  
  If it's because you know someone, okay, I already made an exception for that.
  
  If it is because the town is so small there is nothing else and it is the social/entertainment okay.
  
  If there is other stuff to do but there is a real talent, okay, but that is a more rare exception.
  
  To me, the function of sports to the normal viewer is entertainment. If you have no reason to go, such as it being your kid, there is much better quality entertainment than watching HS sports, such as college or professional sports where the quality of play is much better. Granted College or Professional sports aren't always on, but I generally don't believe it is worthwhile to attend a HS sporting event. If in general a person thinks a high school actually is more entertaining than a higher level of sports (College/Professional) that person is probably a bit weird and hasn't let go of their high school years yet. But as I've stated before, there is a small exception for when you have a truly gifted HS athlete (LeBron) that I could understand wanting to watch it.
• LJ

  

  queencitybuckeye;1093918 wrote:I think it's less a function of age and more a function of its place in your life. High school hopefully was a great time in your life, but how sad it is that it's actually the best time of some people's lives. Those are the creepy ones, those who hang on to something they should have moved on from years or decades ago.

  
  This.
  
  And ill add, when it becomes more than just something different to do a few nice nights a year.
• Raw Dawgin' it

  

  Fly4Fun;1093933 wrote:I've had one person just with a blanket question "why". What the why is specifically asking about I don't know.
  
  Then another poster responds with just a random insult. Care to expand upon your original thought? It's my opinion, try to convince me otherwise (isn't that the point of a message board). I'm willing to budge if you give me a good reason. But from my point of view, there is little reason for an adult to be attending a HS athletic event.
  
  If it's because you know someone, okay, I already made an exception for that.
  
  If it is because the town is so small there is nothing else and it is the social/entertainment okay.
  
  If there is other stuff to do but there is a real talent, okay, but that is a more rare exception.
  
  To me, the function of sports to the normal viewer is entertainment. If you have no reason to go, such as it being your kid, there is much better quality entertainment than watching HS sports, such as college or professional sports where the quality of play is much better. Granted College or Professional sports aren't always on, but I generally don't believe it is worthwhile to attend a HS sporting event. If in general a person thinks a high school actually is more entertaining than a higher level of sports (College/Professional) that person is probably a bit weird and hasn't let go of their high school years yet. But as I've stated before, there is a small exception for when you have a truly gifted HS athlete (LeBron) that I could understand wanting to watch it.

  Your 3 exceptions cover the majority of scenarios. Basically you have to live in a big city with lots to do, have a shitty HS and have no connection to anyone in HS sports...and there are even exceptions to this. You pretty much contradicted yourself.
• Glory Days

  

  Fly4Fun;1093903 wrote:I disagree with the premise. When you graduate from high school you should no longer attend HS sporting events unless you have a close friend or relative (or eventually your own kids) still on it or you are back for an alumni function.

  This
  

  queencitybuckeye;1093918 wrote:I think it's less a function of age and more a function of its place in your life. High school hopefully was a great time in your life, but how sad it is that it's actually the best time of some people's lives. Those are the creepy ones, those who hang on to something they should have moved on from years or decades ago.

  I think this applies when you graduate. Unless you have a close friend or relative in HS, there is no reason to be at the games. you now have adult things to do.
• Mulva

  

  I think a person's behavior at the event is a lot creepier than what event the person chooses to attend. The 40 year old man with face paint and a jersey on screaming his head off at an NFL game is a much bigger creep than the 40 year old man who attends his old high school's football game 20 years after he graduated and watches the game like a normal person.
  
  But that's just my opinion.
  
  Also, the "entertainment" argument is just dumb. I don't think there is a single entertaining quality to NASCAR. But I don't think people who attend the races are creepy. Even if they aren't related to any of the drivers.
  
  I also find a little irony in the fact that many of the people saying it's creepy to attend high school sporting events after you graduate migrated over here from a website called JJ's Ohio High School Sports Huddle.
• Fly4Fun

  

  Raw Dawgin' it;1093943 wrote:Your 3 exceptions cover the majority of scenarios. Basically you have to live in a big city with lots to do, have a shitty HS and have no connection to anyone in HS sports...and there are even exceptions to this. Basically, you contradicted yourself.

  There are plenty of legitimate reasons to go to HS sporting events... I never said there wasn't. That's the point of exceptions. I said a small town, not that a person doesn't live in a big city. This may be a semantics issue. Shitty HS? No, I even described earlier that even if the HS is a top 10 in the state, it doesn't necessarily mean it has the overall level of talent, or some amazing individual talent to warrant it. I have the SVSM as an example because it's a good one. Just because a team has one player who will go to a BCS school or maybe two MAC caliber level players doesn't justify it imo, but that's looking at it from a purely entertainment view point. The lack of talent doesn't justify it. ANd I never said any connection justifies it. Just because your neighbor's kid rides the pine doesn't mean you should go start watching. If he's playing and the neighbors invite you, sure why not. That's a social function. But if you're justification is little neighbor Timmy who grew up next door is playing and you want to watch him all season (that's creepy). I said a relative or close friend. I think that is a very narrow category.
  
  Yes, there are a lot of legitimate reasons to go to a HS sporting event. But I was trying to articulate reasons why 40 year old men shouldn't be attending numerous HS sporting events a year when they don't have any close connection or reason to. It's just weird in my opinion.
  
  Example would be my father. He loves sports, he played sports. He went to a lot of my sporting events, and those of my brother and sister. We happened to live in Dublin which has pretty good football/basketball programs from time to time. I would of thought it was weird though if he happened to go watch Brady Quinn play at Dublin Coffman. Wouldn't you? He was an adult, an avid sport fan, BUT he had other things to do with his life. He had his own kids, he had his job, his family. He has his own hobbies and sporting activities to pre-occupy himself.
• Fly4Fun

  

  Mulva;1093957 wrote:I think a person's behavior at the event is a lot creepier than what event the person chooses to attend. The 40 year old man with face paint and a jersey on screaming his head off at an NFL game is a much bigger creep than the 40 year old man who attends his old high school's football game 20 years after he graduated and watches the game like a normal person.
  
  But that's just my opinion.
  
  Also, the "entertainment" argument is just dumb. I don't think there is a single entertaining quality to NASCAR. But I don't think people who attend the races are creepy. Even if they aren't related to any of the drivers.

  I'll agree that the behavior probably also is important. While I don't think NASCAR is a sport, I do admit that people find it entertaining. And it's not watching a bunch of HS's driving go-carts so I'm fine with it.
• SnotBubbles

  

  LOL. There is nothing creepy about it. Maybe if a 50 year old man (Wayne from Ft. Wayne lets say) goes to all of the girls games and sits in the front row staring lustfully at the girls. But for a grown man/woman to go to a game just to watch their local school or alma mater and cheer on the community...there isn't anything creepy about it.
  
  I've gone to games when I wasn't broadcasting (notably playoff games). I'm not there to pick up students and take them back to my house for butt secks.
  
  This is a stupid thread. Sorry DA.
• Glory Days

  

  Mulva;1093957 wrote:I think a person's behavior at the event is a lot creepier than what event the person chooses to attend. The 40 year old man with face paint and a jersey on screaming his head off at an NFL game is a much bigger creep than the 40 year old man who attends his old high school's football game 20 years after he graduated and watches the game like a normal person.
  
  But that's just my opinion.
  
  Also, the "entertainment" argument is just dumb. I don't think there is a single entertaining quality to NASCAR. But I don't think people who attend the races are creepy. Even if they aren't related to any of the drivers.
  
  I also find a little irony in the fact that many of the people saying it's creepy to attend high school sporting events after you graduate migrated over here from a website called JJ's Ohio High School Sports Huddle.

  find 1 post from me on one of the highschool forums...