A couple of weeks ago, I participated in one of my first Stanford traditions (not counting the insanity that is Band Run) when I went to the Activities Fair. I felt like I was following in the footsteps of years of Stanford freshmen, not only by attending the fair — but by signing up for way too many clubs.

It happens to the best of us: you see so many interesting and fun opportunities staring you in the face, and while you pass up some (Brazilian break-dance fighting sounds awesome, but I’m pretty sure I would be in a cast after the first week) you can’t help but sign up for many others.

You’re happy with yourself for trying so many new things and getting involved — until you come to the crazy realization that you are actually going to have to do work in college, and that most of these groups will mean nothing more to you than mailing-list emails you have to constantly delete.

This experience actually makes for a decent analogy to “sports-fandom” at Stanford (see, there is a reason this is in the Sports Section!). I’m sure I wasn’t alone when I considered Stanford’s incredible athletics as a factor in choosing the Farm for college. Even people who have never heard of the Director’s Cup know of our reputation for great teams in almost every sport.

So naturally, given that I love sports and had already purchased the All-Axess pass, I thought that I would be going to sporting events almost every day. Nope. As much as I love procrastination, work has already gotten in the way of attending many of these games and matches. So far my total stands at six sporting events — maybe a little more than most of my friends, but not nearly as many as I had expected for my first four weeks.

Although I have been disappointed by the quantity of games I have attended, the quality has been outstanding (except for a couple quarters of football) and I know that this is true also for the teams that I have yet to see play. The jump in quality from the high school sports that many of us freshmen played and watched over the last four years to the teams that we now watch (and on which a select few of us play) is hard to comprehend.

Take, for example, our top-ranked women’s soccer team — a team that features many players who play for national teams, both at the senior or youth level. Now, less than one year ago, I thought it was pretty impressive when someone at my high school got an all-conference award — I know I was proud of getting one for baseball. But I was nowhere near close to being one of the best players in the city of Chicago, let alone in my state.

I won’t mention if I was one of the best in the country or not, but I’m hoping that as Stanford students you all can figure that one out. However, while Stanford might not have admitted a world-class athlete when they let me in, the campus is obviously full of them.

And that brings me, after way too much rambling, to the main point of this article: take advantage of having so many great teams to support. I know this might sound a bit hypocritical, given that I’ve already admitted to not being able to go to all of the sporting events that I’ve wanted to attend, but I will strive to do better as well.

Of course, there are many events that you will have to miss for some reason or another, but when the opportunity is there, grab it. Take it from a Chicago Bears fan who hasn’t been to a game in years because it costs hundreds of dollars just to get in the stadium — compared to a grand total of $0.00 for a seat in the Stanford Football Red Zone — you won’t have the chance to see so many great teams for so little cost ever again.

Sam Svoboda is a freshman who has clearly never heard of Walt Harris.