Jake Kauffman grew to love girls basketball while following his older sister, Jordan, a former Butler Golden Tornado standout who graduated in 2020 and played at Slippery Rock University.

He attends many of the team’s games now as a student broadcaster and even finds himself at some non-Butler games during the postseason.

Kauffman is the leader of Butler’s Green Party, the self-named student section for Butler sports. They are at nearly every Butler football and boys basketball game, home or away.

But girls basketball does not receive quite the same support.

“That’s just kind of how it’s always been,” Kauffman said. “Even when my sister played, there was never a student section and I went to every single one. … I don’t know why.”

The Butler Eagle spoke to athletes, coaches and student sections from a handful of county high schools about the support at girls basketball games.

Boys basketball at most schools is traditionally well attend by student sections. But girls basketball support can vary.

“I definitely notice it. There’s not as much cheering or support,” Tornado senior Eva Stutz said. “The few games where we have boy-girl doubleheaders, when there are more students there, there’s more energy there.”

“I think we’re pretty used to it at this point, I wouldn’t say it really bothers us,” said Mars senior Mya Moore, who noted Planets girls games don’t get as large a student presence as the boys.

When done right, like at Karns City, large student sections can have a psychological effect on a game.

“(Our student section starts) in pregame warmups. They chant every time (the opposing team) misses in warmups,” Gremlins girls coach Steve Andreassi said. “They’ve got their attention.”

Girls players from Butler and Mars said they appreciate the support they do get but know more of their classmates go to boys home and road games.

Moore said it “would be kind of cool” if more people attended her senior year, but she focuses more on her family’s support. Butler’s Stutz and Emily Hoffer notice a small core of student fans at their games and enjoy the home games where the youth girls programs attend.

But fewer students in the stands can make players feel like their peers don’t care as much.

Kauffman believes there’s been growing support around Western Pennsylvania schools for girls basketball, but “the Butler area, I don’t think it’s gone up that much.”

He said WPIAL Section 1-6A, the northern division of the WPIAL’s biggest classification, doesn’t have as strong of attendance as its counterpart in the south.

He watched a North Allegheny vs. Norwin game a while back and said both student sections were good. WPIAL championships draw larger crowds.

But the lack of regular support for local teams, even when they’re winning, can be frustrating. Butler’s boys and girls teams are in the thick of the WPIAL playoff race, right around .500, but Kauffman said student section attendance appears to be down this year for both.

Mars, like other schools, hosts a handful of boys-girls doubleheaders during the season. Moore said she notices more students trickle in during the second half of the girls game to get ready for the boys game. Mars’ girls made the WPIAL semifinals last year as a double-digit seed and advanced to states, just like the boys.

“I think girls sports can be just as good as boys sports,” Moore said. “Even good teams, like South Fayette, they don’t have a big student section.”

“Sometimes I think the girls feel they get disregarded in many ways, but when you come to Karns City (it’s different),” Andreassi said.

Karns City stands out from other school local districts. Butler players felt it immediately in a non-league road game Jan. 15.

“They have a huge student section that was definitely involved in the game,” Stutz said.

“I think it’s the smaller schools that go (and support well),” Hoffer said.

Andreassi graduated from Karns City in 1982. He remembers a “very similar student section” that supported the boys and girls basketball teams well.

What makes Karns City an anomaly? The school district’s overall size — the average high school graduating class size between 2022-24 was 98, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education — means most students know each other and are more willing to support each other, Andreassi theorizes. Parents are behind it as well.

“These kids have been growing up together,” the longtime coach said. “I think the ingredient is, with a small school, we’re just closer.”

Karns City players feel supported and understand they get good support, Andreassi said.

Student section leader Quinn Robinson said the team deserves a lot of credit, too. Karns City girls basketball has been a District 9 Class 2A power for years and this year is no different. Led by senior Naomi Venesky, the Gremlins are 12-2 as of Wednesday and look to be district title contenders again.

“Obviously, it’s really fun to get rowdy with your friends and your school, No. 1,” said Robinson, who added he and the student section get compliments from parents and players. “But we’ve been blessed with a really good girls team for a while.”

More advertising, more promotion and maybe even some incentives are a few of the ideas players and Kauffman bandied about to try to increase student support at girls basketball games.

Kauffman saw students rally around the girls volleyball team in the fall, growing to four or five rows deep by the end of the season. So there’s proof students will support a girls sport at Butler.

His sales pitch to his classmates is simple: “just give it a test” if you’ve never been. Even 20 students at a game will make a difference.

Moore, Robinson and others said the quality of play is high and in some cases a school’s girls team is better than the boys.

Robinson and fellow student section leader Colton Christy “spend all week in school” coming up with themes and making social media graphics. Hoffer said she wishes the Butler’s girls team was advertised more in the district, although Kauffman said he tries to promote the games on social media, using a Butler Barstool Instagram account and even had a Green Party group chat that grew to 160 people. He asks friends in school, too.

Stutz thinks incentives, like free rally towels, could draw more students to games.

“If I could cast a spell right now, I’d have at least 75% of that section (Butler athletic director Bill) Mylan gives us for that to be packed at every boys and girls games,” Kauffman said.