Smith College Athletics is growing in recognition and acclaim. At a time when the global spectatorship of women’s sports is on the rise, Smith is stepping up to the plate. Smith’s athletic teams are consistently receiving national poll rankings, winning conference championships and making headlines. How can Smith stay on this wave of increased viewership? The answer starts with Smith students and community members.
At the Division III level, Smith Athletics has become more competitive on the court, field and water compared to years past. All Smith varsity sports teams have elevated their level of play, increasing their winning percentages significantly from previous seasons.
During the 2023-2024 season, all 11 sports teams qualified for postseason contention in the New England Men’s and Women’s Conference (NEWMAC). Over the past two years, basketball, rowing, track and field, dive and volleyball have advanced to regional and national NCAA competitions, helping put Smith on the map as a leading liberal arts institution in athletic accolades.
Overall accessibility has contributed to the fluctuation of viewership among sports, especially for fans who are unable to attend in person athletic events.
For the beginning of the 2024 fall season, NEWMAC partnered with FloSports, a sports media company and streaming platform. Under this five-year contract, viewers are required to pay $29.99 per month or $150 per year to stream any Smith athletic event. While there is a discounted price for NEWMAC students with an eligible .edu email, it was previously free to watch regular-season or NEWMAC postseason games.
“It is a pay-to-watch service, so that definitely gets a little tough [in terms of viewership],” Assistant Sports Information Director Connor Martin said. “But Smith, in the fall season and in the spring season, has been the most watched team [in the NEWMAC]. Our NEWMAC Championship volleyball game was the most watched event in the fall. And then the NEWMAC Championship for basketball, across all NEWMAC teams and all NEWMAC sports.”
While spectatorship at Smith is nowhere near the millions of views large Division I institutions receive, a crowd of dedicated fans is an influential factor in any student-athlete’s performance during competition. However, the playing field isn’t even.
“It all depends on what each person likes to watch,” swimmer Maddie Milla ’27 said. “Swimming, I think, is one of the most exciting sports to watch but not everyone thinks that. It’s a no contact sport, […] with contact sports I feel like it’s easier because you have team one and team two and they’re going against each other. With swimming […] it’s hard to tell with lanes and points and who’s doing what event, why they’re doing that event.”
Basketball is undoubtedly the most popular sport on campus, bringing in the largest student-body crowd by a landslide. During the 2024-2025 season, their home opener brought about 500 fans to Ainsworth Gymnasium. Volleyball welcomed 250 fans to their first home game and lacrosse had 75 fans out on the turf to watch them play.
Other teams like field hockey and soccer average between 100 to 155 fans per game throughout their regular season. In the postseason, 750 supporters packed Ainsworth’s stands for basketball’s first round NEWMAC playoff game. 200 fans turned out for volleyball’s game in the same round.
So why does spectatorship vary so much between the sports teams?
Milla noted rising excitement around the sport of swimming on a global scale. While the Olympic Games and World Aquatics Championships bring in millions of views, it is difficult to attract this type of enthusiasm to Dalton Pool.
“With college swimming, it’s mostly dual meets, one team against another. With the Olympics, it’s multiple countries against each other so everyone is just rooting for America, and it’s easy to pick your favorite American swimmer and root for them. [At Smith] we have four Smith swimmers in a six-lane pool. Who do I root for? What’s going on? Why are there multiple swimmers from the same team? I can see how it can be confusing.”
While general appreciation for sports may vary among the student body, many teams also face scheduling disadvantages that can impact fan turnout.
Because the NEWMAC has specific timeframes regarding when games can be held, administrators note that this affects spectatorship across sports.
“There’s some sports that play at two o’clock in the afternoon, but that’s a lot harder for students to make, especially when it comes to class schedules, activity schedules, compared to a Wednesday night basketball game,” Martin said. “Softball doesn’t have lights on their field so they can’t play past 6:30 p.m. That’s just the way it is.”
While some student-athletes note inclement weather and the distance from central campus to the athletic fields as barriers that could deter larger fan bases, other factors may also contribute to this discrepancy.
An increased in-person fan turnout often correlates with a team’s success, which has taken some sports years to cultivate.
“No one really knew about volleyball just because we were building my freshman year. We [brought in] eleven people and had four returners,” volleyball student-athlete Abby Sweeney ’25 said. “We were historically not a very good program, our records were minimal, and we would be battling for the bottom of the conference.”
“Seeing that change from my first year to my senior year, winning the conference, we really have a larger fan base and people actually come to the games,” Sweeney said. “You just will, sadly, only get more love when your team does better, but we should change that because [if you start supporting] teams early, you’ll see the results later on.”
Social media has become one of the largest ways Smith Athletics shares information with the student body and community members. The Smith Pioneers (@smithpioneers) Instagram account is the hub for all things athletics, posting upcoming events, results, highlight games and interviews with standout athletes.
Sometimes they get things wrong.
“At least for track, we’ve had a big problem with Smith Pioneers posting things that just aren’t even true about what happened at meets,” track and field student-athlete Kerry Seekamp ’26 said. “It’ll be like, ‘They ran an amazing 4×4,’ and we didn’t even run a 4×4 at the meet. And [the posts will] be pictures that are from years ago of a senior who graduated.”
Smith’s teams often rely on graduate assistants or undergraduate student-athletes to run team social media accounts. With their busy schedules, team social media managers often struggle to produce timely images without administrative support.
“We have a lot of trouble getting the Smith photographer in general to come to any of our events, which is why we use pictures that are three and four years old,” Seekamp said.
The Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has been working to generate greater attention toward all athletics, while the SAAC Board aims to create relationships with the student body to further increase spectator participation.
SAAC Vice President and field hockey student-athlete Gracie Hylton ’27 said the most successful field hockey game in terms of spectator turnout was promoted by the college during the first week of orientation.
“When the hill is completely filled, we really feel that energy and the sideline is much more excited, and when you’re on the field, it feels so much more intense,” Hylton said. “We’re always playing for our teammates, but when the hill is completely filled and everyone is cheering for you, it feels like you’re playing for all of Smith, which we want to be.”
Martin noted the basketball team’s success with viewership as a result of the program’s community outreach initiatives that foster positive experiences for all generations of sports lovers in the area.
“[Basketball] started the Playmakers Club, so it allows teams to come in and play at halftime, or it allows different kids to do different clinics along the school year,” Martin said. “They also did another club for [adults] and they’re able to step into the huddle with Coach Hersey. They’re able to do all these things that feel like they’re a part of it, and that’s what has helped them succeed.”
Community outreach has been crucial to building relationships between fans and players over multiple seasons. Other sports are trying to reach the wider Smith community in creative ways.
“Softball does a really fun thing where they do a ceremonial first pitch before every game, and [the other day] they had the Mayor and the Director of Mail Services, and just being able to meet those people that you don’t typically see in an athletic building and being able to learn about them and learn about their stories is really cool,” Martin said.
Many teams use incentives to draw more students to support their peers at athletic events.
“Anything involving a T-shirt always gets Smith students out and about showing up,” Sweeney said. “There’s always people going to be waiting outside to get a piece of pizza before a game.”
Incorporating athletics into the classroom has also helped athletes involve their classmates in the sports side of Smith. When student-athletes promote and announce their events at the beginning or end of each class, people stay engaged and interested.
Athletes have begun thinking outside the box, suggesting a podcast to broadcast upcoming events and share the ins and outs of each sport for fans who are less familiar with the rules.
This year alone has proven that fan turnout does not dictate success. Volleyball won the Conference championship for the first time since 2005 and ended their season in the second round of the NCAA tournament in the longest postseason run in program history. Swim broke a record set in 2017 for the 400-yard freestyle relay and diver Katherine Welsh finished seventh on the 3-meter at the NCAA DIII Northeast/North Regional Diving Championship. Track and Field’s Distance Medley Relay (DMR) team was the first to compete in Smith’s history at the NCAA Indoor National Championship and finished 11th in the nation.
Athletes want fans at their games — supporting, cheering and talking about all things women’s sports. With the addition of increased spectatorship, who knows how far Smith athletics can go.
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