Storm Da Valley was created by the DV Athletics Leadership team, and is a recurring event where students can watch their peers in action. The DV Athletics team encourages support for under-attended sports events by offering activities to bystanders.
According to Kayla Mawani, a senior who is a part of the Athletics team, the event is “DV Leadership’s way of representing sports that normally don’t get a lot of representation or [student] fans.”
The event was created last year, named after a “play on words being ‘D’ from ‘Da’ and then ‘V’ from Valley, DV,” according to Daniel Bowen, the Leadership teacher.
This year, DV Athletics holds Storm Da Valleys for teams including the women’s volleyball team, men’s water polo, the new flag football team and many more.
Junior Charlotte Correia, a member of the DV Athletics team, explained the reasoning behind the program. “We’re trying to use Storm Da Valley to get people to realize [that] these are sports that have people who work really, really hard.”
Correia feels that most students don’t understand how much work and time student athletes put into their sport. “People don’t realize how good our golf team is, how good our tennis team is, or our women’s volleyball.”
The DV Athletics team hosted their first Storm Da Valley on Oct. 3, 2023 for men’s water polo. Correia said that the event was a success as the team was able to convince 20 more students to come watch the game.
This encouraged the team as Bowen mentioned, after the game, “The coach sent a message to me, just saying that they appreciated the support.”
Another notable Storm Da Valley was at a soccer game and it made Mawani, who also plays for the women’s soccer team, “feel empowered because a lot of my friends and family were watching and looked like they wanted to be there.” Mawani added that, “normally, at women’s soccer games, we don’t have that.”
To make Storm Da Valley successful, the leadership team has to bring a student section to the games. After the DV Athletics team reaches out to a coach or a captain of one of DV’s sports, they figure out a specific game where DV Athletics could set up their event.
Each Storm Da Valley is themed and has various activities, based on the sport. They have speakers for music, food, and lots of posters to support the athletes at the games. For example, last year’s Storm Da Valley for women’s volleyball had outdoor cup pong.
“We do all this stuff just to get people to come out and try to support and show the team that,” Correia said.
In addition, most of the food at these events are free, including admission to the game.
“It’s a fun way to go and hang out and have people come to watch the games so our athletes at Dougherty Valley feel more supported, loved, and recognized,” Correia said.
