The idiot’s guide to fan involvement
Garrett Wait
Sports Assistant
My very first column ever. This could be painful. What should I write about? Maybe I should discuss the Olympics — those seem to be big. Nah. What happens in Athens should stay in Athens.
How about basketball? Everybody likes basketball. No, forget it, the NCAA season is light-years away.
Maybe volleyball. It’s a hot sport right now because of Kerri Walsh and Misty May. Eh, I love the sport, but it just doesn’t feel right.
Dang, this is turning out to be harder than I thought. Oh wait, what’s the one constant among all those sports I just mentioned? You, the Pepperdine sports fan.
So that’s who I’m here to serve. I write as a voice of the people (not to sound too noble or preachy or anything).
Anyway, at last the new school year is here, which brings with it high hopes for Pepperdine’s athletic programs. Pepperdine fans are anticipating big things from our water polo, basketball, golf, baseball and volleyball teams.
We should be.
Our fall sports lineup is stacked. The men’s water polo team brings back all kinds of letter winners — even an Olympic athlete in senior Jesse Smith.
Women’s golf has a great coach and WCC championship aspirations. Women’s soccer was recently ranked 22nd in the Soccer America national poll.
Our men’s basketball team, despite recent bumps in the road, could be on the fast track for an NCAA tourney berth. Our new women’s basketball coaches are expecting big things from a talented team.
OK what does all this rambling mean? It means we should be positive as Waves fans.
We can’t yell at our teams, players and coaches if they screw up, like we have in years past. We have to be supportive, like a Pepperdine native fawn nurturing her young.
Negativity abounds in the stands at many of our sporting events. Fans scream about how much players “suck.”
The truth is, none of them suck. In fact, I bet some of them are actually pretty good at what they do. I mean, they did get a scholarship to a Division I program, right?
These athletes are in our classes, in our dorms and apartments and in the student body along with the rest of us.
Even so, fans tend to dissociate from the athletes themselves when they take the playing field. It’s as if we put them in a glass box and watch them as though they aren’t real. We’re not at the games; we’re watching them on a huge HDTV.
We can’t be like Red Sox fans, constantly berating our team and bemoaning its unsuccessful attempts at bringing home a championship. That kind of stuff just breeds a sense of failure and causes problems in our sports community.
Instead, if our campus roots hard for all of our teams, no matter what the situation, we could really have an incredible influence on how well they play. They represent our school, but our duty as fans is to represent them.
Part of being a good fan is also having class when we play opponents we don’t particularly like. It seems like every basketball game I have attended here has been marred by the worst chant in all of sports.
I’m talking about the “You you you you youuuuu … SUCK!” chant. Real sports fans know that if a player gets hit with a foul, he or she doesn’t necessarily suck. Most of the time, that happens because the player is playing too hard, putting out too much effort on the court.
That’s not my real problem with that chant, though. My biggest beef with it is that it’s just plain stupid. It’s not clever at all.
I know other teams’ fans have shown the way when it comes to heckling the other team, but we need not follow in their footsteps. There are other ways to belittle the other team that are much more creative.
In years past, Riptide has had somebody hand out “cheat sheets” about other teams’ players with points that people can really take advantage of in their heckling. I wholeheartedly encourage more of this.
All right, I’ll get off my soapbox now. I’m just excited by what this upcoming season has to offer. We could be looking at one of the all-time greatest years for Pepperdine sports.
Anyway, attend the sports, be supportive, be vicious, be loud, be wild and be positive. That’s what being a sports fan is all about. Go in peace, my children.
08-30-2004