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Aggie fans travel to support Mountain West tournament

As the Utah State Aggies played against other teams in the Mountain West tournament, their devoted fans cheered for them in the stands.

The pep band, the cheer squad, students enjoying their spring break in Las Vegas, families taking vacations, alumni and more all raised their voices in support.

“We’ve just been Big Blue members forever,” Guyann Larsen said. “We’ve been watching Aggie basketball for like 25 years.”

Guyann and her husband, Vint, have been ticket holders for years, she said. They come to the tournament every year when work allows.

“This is our date night,” Vint said.

Some long-time fans use the tournament as an excuse for an annual family vacation.

“We’ve been doing it for years, probably 15-20 years,” Verl Janes said. “It’s just a thing that we do as a family, as a vacation this time of year to get out of the cold weather in Logan and to support the Aggies.”

The Janes family members mostly watch the games when they come down to the tournament, but they also walk the Strip and go shopping when it’s warm out, said Dayna Janes.

Among the Utah State fans are students who spend their spring break supporting their school.

“We’ve been coming here for the past three years, to the tournament. It’s kind of turned into a tradition,” said Zachary Sites, a junior in business marketing. “It’s something we look forward to going to every year now. I mean, Vegas isn’t too far away, but just far enough to get away.”

Sites said the students who come down for the tournament are like the “Spectrum on Wheels.”

“I think it’s good for the team to see the fans coming to the games because it gives them that extra push that they need to win more than their skills,” said Andrew Brown, a senior in statistics. “They see, ‘Oh, we have fans, we have people who support us no matter where we go,’ so I think that’s probably one of the greatest parts, for me at least.”

Another fan demographic is parents of the student-athletes who come to support their children.

Greg and Wendy Toole went to this year’s tournament to watch their daughter, Katie, a freshman guard with the women’s team.

“It’s been very exciting and rewarding to be able to watch her play,” Greg said, “and to be able to work with Utah state and see the teamwork and to be part of that.”

Going to the games allows Greg to watch his daughter play the game he loves and to travel to neat places, he said.

“It’s nerve wracking. It’s stressful,” Wendy said. “Just watching them play, watching any of your kids play, you get stressed, but it’s still fun. You want them to do well, you want the team to do well.”

Paul Fjeldsted came to the tournament to support his son, pep and marching band drummer Gordon Fjeldsted.

“I go to the games and I know that they’re always going to be there and always make it to the field,” Paul said. “So it’s a lot of fun to support the team through the bands.”

Fjeldsted goes to some of the basketball and most of the football games, he said, but this is his first time coming down to the Mountain West Tournament with his son.

“He’s a senior this year and so this is his last foray into the pep band stuff,” he said. “It’s like just in the same way the basketball players and all the athletes have their senior year, the band members, with a lot less fanfare, go through the same transition.”

The Aggie fans coming from Logan to Las Vegas to support the team makes a difference in the way the team plays and adds a level of excitement, Greg said.

“It’s impressive to see there’s people that travel with the team that don’t have relatives that play,” he said. “There’s a good fan base with Utah state.”

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