Hannah Spreckley – Special to the Southern News
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — It’s a known fact there’s a lot of work to do because the school spirit sucks on this campus, and that’s what is trying to be changed said Eric Lacharity, assistant director of Student Affairs.
“Will it be matched next year? We don’t know,” said Lacharity. “We hope that it will and it is our goal moving into football, soccer and other fall sports.”
For the men’s basketball team, the loss in the NCAA tournament was this first since Jan. 8 after going 30-2 for the season. Coming off such an impressive season, the coaches and players have shown appreciation and given credit to their fans in the Blue Crew section, which only came to fruition in the spring semester of 2014.
“Fans can do so much for a team. I would be hard pressed to say that the second half of some of those games when the fans are just going absolutely insane didn’t play a part,” said Lacharity.” “So when (the players) can look into the crowd and see how excited they are for them, it provides that extra burst of energy and motivation and drive to win.”
According to Jason Rizk, the interim director of Chase Hall, when he was a freshman six years ago, there was a maximum of 12 people at the games, usually just family and close friends.
The average attendance to the men’s basketball home games this year was 886 people, compared to the 2012-2013 season where the average attendance was a much lower, 540 people. According to the Southern Owls statistics, the team scored 1362 points in their first halves of the season, where as in the second half, when they had the Blue Crew on their end, scored 1460 points.
“I think coming into the Field House you see how well those teams do when they’re on that other side of the court in the first half,” said Rizk, who played an active role in the Blue Crew section. “They come to the other end and they’re surrounded by loud, passionate fans. I think it makes it more difficult for another team to come in and be successful in our house.”
Travis Burke, a sophomore business major who is a member of the swim team, said he was at every game this year and loved getting involved in the chants and cheers. He said he and his teammates even painted their chests reading ‘GO SCSU!’ in blue paint for two of the NE-10 championship games.
“It makes the games so much more fun to get involved,” said Burke, “but it’s also like we’re the sixth man for the guys on the court.”
The addition of the bleachers at the end of the court has really encouraged students to attend the games and come out to support their Southern Owls, said Burke.
His favorite chant was specific to one of the players, he said: “He’s big, he’s blue, he’s number 22, Jose Cruz, Jose Cruz.”
Jose Cruz, the 6-foot-7 junior forward from Shrewsbury, Mass. averaged 1.9 points per game and 1.7 rebounds.
Lacharity said this is the starting point for the blue crew. It was a great start, because of a great run by a great team. He said he doesn’t want things to die down now just because the basketball is over, he wants students to keep coming out and coming to meetings.
“They all wanted to get in nice and early to make sure they got a seat,” said Rizk. “It’s going to be a contagious sense of spirit.”
