Red flags wave along the perimeter of the parking lot. The halls are filled with red and black. The pirate flag flies with a little more pride when it’s time for the Leopards to defend the home turf.

More than just a myth or a theory or an excuse for the visiting team when they lose, home field advantage is a statistical fact.  It has been proven as a true advantage in all professional leagues, colleges and possibly even right here in high school.

The Leopard varsity football team has won 95.6 percent of its home games over the past 6 seasons; the only three losses coming in the first football season in school history.

But as long as there have been home games in sports, there’s been an advantage.

Many people believe that home field advantage is because of crowd noise or field conditions or travel. However, these are all just myths.

Tobias Moskowitz and Jon Wertheim disregarded all of the precious myths about home field advantage in their book Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games are Won.

Moskowitz and Wertheim state that home field advantage exists because of referee bias.

So, a pitched ball that could go either way (ball or strike), is more likely to be called a strike on a visiting team and a ball on the home team.

According to The Real Reason Behind Home Field Advantage by Sloan Sports Conference, “over a season, visitors get 516 more strikeouts and 195 fewer walks one the same pitches.”

But as overwhelming as that evidence may seem, the numbers may not carry over to the Leopards home field success in football.

“I do not feel that the referees show bias towards the home team,” assistant football coach Ryan Cox said. “The referee crews are chosen by the head coaches at a meeting in February. They both have to agree on a crew or they will be assigned one at random. Most of the time the coaches are able to agree.”

While any referee bias in football may be tough to pinpoint, there is still something to be said about he 95.6 percent home win rate for the Leopards.

“Are the referees deliberately favoring the home team? The authors (Moskowitz and Wertheim) think not,” Jim Albert said in Why do home teams win?.  “They believe that the officials are (like all of us) susceptible to social pressure, which in this case is the home crowd, and this social pressure causes the bias.”

While Cox doesn’t believe referee bias is a “logical reason” for home field advantage, he does agree that officials are susceptible to pressure.

“If a crew is treated with respect vs. being yelled at all game lends me to believe that you might get a call or two,” Cox said. “They are human too.  It can never hurt to treat people with respect and courtesy.”

So while research shows that referee bias is the “true reason” for home field advantage, it may not be the only reason.

“I could see where refs would possibly give in to the pressure of a crowd or a home team,” senior player Jacob Poteete said. “But I think we win at home because we get so fired up to play in front of all our fans, family, and friends. We get to play on our awesome new field and we get to win for our school. I think that’s the real home field advantage.”