By: Shelby Wells

With the  Indiana University basketball team’s success on the rise, the topic of “bandwagoners” is thriving amongst NAHS students.  A band wagoner in sports can be defined as someone who claims loyalty to one team when they are in their peak, and abandons them when they do poorly. Thus moving on to the new popular, successful team. It seems as though some confuse this term with a fair-weather fan, or someone who favors a specific team and sticks with them, but only displays their fandom when the team is doing well. The question is, however, who cares?

I’ll admit, when someone claims to love something simply because it’s the trendy thing to do, it is annoying. However, with some retrospective thought, one must realize that no matter what the reason someone decides to be a fan, at least they are a fan.

Not to mention, we live in Indiana. People are going to be brought up knowing Hoosier basketball. Yes, if someone randomly starts rooting for a team in California just as they make it to the play-offs, their motivation is just to be the cool kid rooting for the winning team. But when someone who has never spoken about IU basketball before starts showing some spirit as IU does well, who cares? Why can’t someone be proud of their own state doing well, regardless of their previous support?

Next time someone rolls their eyes in disdain as they hear someone who previously claimed Duke as their favorite team going on and on about how much they love the Hoosiers, re-think! Let them be proud of where they come from. Hey, at least they aren’t rooting for UK.