The other day, I was on the way from class when I ran into a friend who lived on my floor last year. After a few minutes of small talk, we started discussing UNC Wilmington sports. As we were talking, classes let out, and a mob of people filled the previously empty sidewalks. Staring out over the oncoming wave of beach blondes and longboarders making their way to Chick-Fil-A, my friend turned to me, chuckling, and asked, “How many teal shirts do you see?”

The fact of the matter was that I saw no teal shirts. There must have been 400 kids walking out of different buildings, and I didn’t see a single shade of teal. I saw Carolina blue, Duke blue, Wolfpack red–is that even a real thing?–and Pirate purple. No matter how hard people try and say otherwise, UNCW has no spirit. I’ve seen more school pride at a Juvenile Detention Center. If I were to go around asking people on campus to “Feel My Teal,” campus police would probably tackle me before I got a single high-five.

The first day of freshman orientation, after all of us insecure freshman had filed into our seats in Lumina Theater and run out of small talk with our neighbors, a man got on stage and the nervous buzz of making friends and hitting on girls stopped. The man looked out into the crowd and asked us all, “How many of you are here because you did not get into UNC-Chapel Hill?” The question was met with numerous hands going up and tons of cheers. I kid you not. The first introduction I ever had at UNCW was one that recognized that we were another university’s leftovers.

Someone please find me another school whose student body supports other teams as much as UNCW does. Now I’ve never been on the Chapel Hill or Duke campus, but if it is anything like ours, I can imagine that their student body is crawling with teal t-shirts. The two biggest days of the year at UNCW are when Carolina and Duke play each other, so I assume our friends on Tobacco Road go crazy when we play George Mason, right?

Just recently, the VCU basketball team came to play UNCW at Trask Coliseum. The next day, I overheard two guys talking about sports, specifically the basketball game. “I would have gone last night,” sports enthusiast No. 1 said to sports fan No. 2, “but I forgot.”

UNCW: where people would go see a Final Four team play, but then they forget. Someone find me another student body that forgets stuff like that, I dare you.

Then there are the people that tell me that I’ll get out what I put into it. Sure, that may be true, but that’s not the problem. I could put all I wanted to into being a Seahawk fanatic, and it wouldn’t make a difference. My 10 closest friends and I could go to a basketball game, and we would double the attendance.

Yeah, we may have a few characters, people who go all out for games, who truly love UNCW sports. Off the top of my head, I can think of, like, three or four people. Do you think people at Virginia Tech have that problem? Turn on a Carolina or Duke basketball game and see how many “characters” they have at their games. If you can’t find them, I’ll let you in on a secret. They’re the giant mob of hundreds of fans losing their minds each time their team scores.

I get it, though, I really do. We don’t have a football team. Without a football team, how can we appreciate any other sport, right? I know I would rather complain about a non-existent team then support a team we actually have. At least we have those really funny t-shirts, the ones that talk about UNCW football being undefeated since 1947. You know who else makes those shirts? Literally every other school in the country without a football team. It wasn’t funny or clever the first time they were made; it’s not funny now.

Maybe next time we’re thinking up clever t-shirts, we can make one for the men’s swimming and diving team, which has now won 11 consecutive CAA championships.

I know UNCW has other priorities, like going to the beach and talking about going to the beach and thinking about going to the beach, but give it a rest people. You’re not Tarheel “born and bred.” You’re not a Wolf, or in a Wolf pack, or whatever State says. Your mom going to Duke was a good enough excuse to jump on the bandwagon in high school, but now that you’re enrolled at UNCW it’s time to stop pretending otherwise. We’re only here for four years; would it kill everyone to support UNCW for that brief amount of time?