Sportsmanship as important as loyalty
I love Aggie basketball. Every game day, I get all dressed up in my Aggie blue – armed with my game-day shirt, Utah State wristband, and yes, sadly, even a pair of navy blue tennis shoes. Combine that with a little face paint and a well-chosen seat, I guess you could say I’m a fanatic.
But I’m nothing special. I think basketball is a Utah State disease.
The fight song starts our “blue” blood pumping wildly still 20 minutes before tip off. The band plays, the crowd yells and the team comes prancing onto the court ready and willing to bring one home for good old Utah State. It gets us all excited. It’s a wonderful feeling.
I’m proud to be numbered among the Aggies’ loyal fans. We have a good team and an even better, more enthusiastic student body to back them up.
When I first started college, I just assumed all college basketball was this crazy. But on a recent trip to another university game, I discovered my assumption was far from truth. Sure, every team has their loyal fans, students who will go all out, painting their faces and chests, spiking their hair and dying it the school colors.
There are fanatics everywhere. But nowhere are there fans like Aggie fans.
Well – the other university’s game was a disappointment. In fact, I kept calling my friends trying to find out the score for Utah State’s game. But though disappointing, it was still not a waste. I learned something valuable from another team’s fanatics.
Fans don’t have to be mean to be fun.
I know this is a touchy subject for some. Basketball is supposed to be energetic. You should cheer wildly for your players, make noise when the other team has the ball, become silent on Aggie free throws and blow the roof off when their opponents try their luck at the line. All these things just come with the territory.
But I think there is a line dividing enthusiasm and poor sportsmanship, and Aggies have a tendency to cross it at times.
I am mostly referring to chanting “you suck” and phrases like it at opponents. Is it really necessary? I don’t think so, and I don’t think it would detract from our renowned reputation as exuberant fans to start excluding them from our fanatic vocabulary. In fact, I think it might improve it. We would certainly look better when we lose-like we did on Saturday – with less egg to wipe off our face.
The Spectrum is hard place to play ball. Visitors know it and they know that a lot of it has to do with the fans we have here. They are great. They are excited and, let’s face it, without them, the game is lacking.
Fans bring the energy. They are the fuel. Without them, a lot of the joy of the game is lost. How much fun would it be to watch the Aggies spank another team by more than 20 points if the students weren’t there screaming and rubbing it in a little?
The key term here is a little. Be a fanatic, but keep it under control. We don’t want people looking back and saying the Aggies were poor sports.
Mikaylie Kartchner is a senior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to mikayliek@cc.usu.edu.