LC student section finds life on Instagram

Student sections are the staple of most college gymnasiums and stadiums. These sections create a culture of spirited students dressing in themes and cheering for their student-athlete peers as loudly as possible. This year, Lewis & Clark students are reviving the student section through the platform of social media.

 The Lewis & Clark Pio Dog House Instagram account @lcpiodoghouse is run by Cole Petters ’20 and James Hodge-Green ’23. LC Pio Dog House is an independent student-run Instagram account that promotes and supports LC student athletes. As of writing, the account has 354 followers and 10 posts. It plans to have 1,500 followers by the end of the year.

Petters and Hodge-Green both believe that there is room for more excitement surrounding athletics at LC. They explain that a critical step in generating this hype is to reach out to non-athletes that might not usually be interested in athletics. 

“Our goal is to bring some more hype to our athletic events and bridge the gap between student-athletes and non-student-athletes,” Hodge-Green said. 

To that end, the account increases the accessibility of LC sports, serving as a nexus of information regarding game times, updates and events. It also provides students with the necessary information to support their student-athlete peers.

The account also posts memes featuring LC students’ faces planted onto images from popular media such as “The Office.” Petters noted that by using popular media, the account can appeal to students who are not interested in sports. It aims to show that you do not need extensive sports knowledge in order to have fun and show support for your peers in the student section.

Danny Brady ’23 believes the account makes LC sports more relatable.

“By using memes as a platform to showcase LC sports I have grown more attentive to our various sports teams,” Brady said.

Petters and Hodge Green aim to bridge the gap between student-athletes and their peers by diversifying their content. Petters and Hodge-Green are planning raffles, giveaways and competitions on the account. Most recently, they posted on their instagram story that the account was planning on selling merchandise that students can wear during games. In order to involve the students they also added a poll to gauge the interest of the student body in the student section. Additionally, they discussed plans to reach out to the art and theatre departments to increase student awareness.

“I think we’ve built a great foundation,” Hodge-Green said. “You can’t tell us that we’re unsuccessful because no one has done this before.”

Between their already significant growth and plans for expansion, the future looks bright for the LC Pio Dog House.