As the school year starts back up this fall, with it comes a new organization: Tigertown. Tigertown is an Occidental student group led by lacrosse head coach Sierra Slack that hopes to encourage students to go to sports games and other athletic events, with the overall goal of fostering school spirit.
According to Slack, the organization enhances the gameday experience with entertainment and giveaways to promote engagement and to incentivize students to attend free weekly Occidental sports games.
“Games are happening every week on campus, so why wouldn’t we bring folks together during something that’s easily accessible and free?” Coach Slack said via email.
According to Assistant Athletic Director for Communications Joe Perrino, Tigertown aims to increase student involvement with sports on campus.
“The organization, while composed of all students, is meant more for non-athletes with the overall goal of raising awareness of the many athletic events happening on campus and drawing larger crowds to games,” Perrino said via email.
According to Charlotte Dreyfus (sophomore), the stands at Occidental are typically very empty. As a dedicated member of both Tigertown and the Occidental lacrosse team, Dreyfus said she appreciates the organization’s efforts in bringing students together at games.
“There isn’t a lot of support,” Dreyfus said. “The idea is just to bring some hype.”
Dreyfus said the existence of the organization alone is meaningful because it makes students want to show up. She said that Tigertown adds even more fun to attending these games, and that support is really important at a Division III school like Occidental.
“It’s something to do,” Dreyfus said. “But it’s also supporting your classmates, your teammates and your friends. It’s exciting. I think people need to take more advantage of it.”
Slack and Dreyfus both said that more students should attend the free games and have fun at the Tigertown events.
“All the games are free and I think [athletes] always appreciate people watching, whether they like to say it or not,” Dreyfus said.
According to Slack, Tigertown has been looking to partner with other organizations, such as the Student Leadership, Involvement, and Community Engagement (SLICE) office and Institutional Advancement to increase incentives for students. She also said that partnering with other organizations allows Tigertown to provide even more for students.
Slack said that Tigertown was able to give away over 400 free shirts to fans with SLICE. Slack said partnering with organizations outside of the lacrosse team has allowed her to connect with other aspects of Occidental. She said Tigertown has the ability to bridge gaps that exist at Occidental and bring students and staff of all different interests together.
Slack said she is looking forward to the next big event: the Oct. 18th women’s soccer game. She said Tigertown plans on partnering with Institutional Advancement and having a food giveaway for the first 200 attendees. Slack said on top of the event planning, she is interested in tracking attendance with Raftr, the app used by Occidental to connect students and track attendance.
“The most recent game, being the T-shirt giveaway, saw nearly 1,000 attend our preseason [men’s] soccer game,” Perrino said.
However, Tigertown is not an entirely new organization. According to Slack, the group has existed in the past, led mainly by small groups of inspired students. But as these spirited tigers graduate, groups like Tigertown get lost. Coach Slack said she intends to keep Tigertown going strong and steady, even as we say goodbye to graduating students and welcome new Tigers to Occidental.
“I believe there’s a need for Tigertown,” Slack said. “Campus life can prove that’s true by engaging with our events!”
Dreyfus said looking forward, there is a possibility of a board or student leadership involvement, but for now, Tigertown is still getting started.
Dreyfus said she encourages students to keep an eye on the Tigertown Instagram for events coming up, as well as being on the lookout for an email about upcoming meetings or events.
Slack said Tigertown will also be on the quad marketing events, and that she encourages students to stop by.
“We’re gonna have some big events coming,” Dreyfus said. “I think people should pull up.”
Contact Amelia Darling at adarling@oxy.edu
