Flashback to September 13th, 2017. It is 10 o’clock at night, and I am sitting at my desk, putting off doing schoolwork, as I would any Wednesday night. But that night’s procrastination venue was special. The online time wasting choice of the day: The Roar Zone’s, or Penn State hockey’s student section’s, website.
The next day, at the bright and early time of seven am, was a day I had been waiting for since I committed to attend Penn State. It was the day I would finally buy my season tickets and join the student section for college hockey games. To be honest, I had never attended an NCAA men’s hockey game before, and still have yet to go to one of these games. But from my knowledge base of OHL hockey, the league of my hometown team, I knew college games had to be exciting.
At home, my major junior hockey team was just as skilled as any NCAA team is, if not more so. So why did OHL crowds tend to fall flat sometimes, while NCAA crowds kept roaring all game long? Much of this excitement, I rationalized, had to come from the presence of a student section. At home, much of the crowd was composed of families or adult hockey fans, who would cheer after goals and sometimes when prompted by music from the loudspeakers. In college, there was a designated section for leading cheers and making noise. So obviously this experience was going to be nothing but positive, right?
Not quite. Cut back to that night of procrastination via the Roar Zone website. One tab was dedicated descriptions of the cheers the student section yell’s out during the game.
Oh perfect, I thought as I delved into the webpage.
Again, not quite. As I searched through the cheers, I found that many of the cheers had a negative focus. Some were positive and focused on cheering on our own team, but this was a minority. Most were focused on telling the other team, in varying ways, how much they “suck.”
This really bothered me. One of the things I love about being a sports fan is cheering on my own team. It is super exciting and very fun to cheer on your team surrounded by other people who share your love for both the team and the sport. I doubt degrading the visiting team has this same community building and fun effect.
When reflecting on my finding with my parents, my mother responded with another tidbit that I think is significant: Part of the reason Penn State football’s student section is so great is because we are an incredibly loud force cheering on our team. To hear us yell “WE ARE” brings pride into the heart of all Penn Staters. I can’t imagine hearing us tell other schools how much they suck has the same effect.
I feel as though sportsmanship is something that should be carried on to the fans. You attend a game to root for your own team, not bring the other one down. I think we should focus on the
Jess, I completely agree. I love cheering on sports teams, because it created such a sense of community. However, when one community consists solely on the basis of putting down another group, I no longer enjoy participating in that community. You can catch me at the hockey games this season cheering for our team, not shouting against the other.
This was a very interesting post. I am not personally a hockey fan but from what I’ve seen on TV it seems to be a rather violent sport. That may be why the fans feel justified in yelling nasty cheers and demeaning the other team. However, I completely agree with you that the best way to cheer on our teams is through positive, encouraging cheers, and definitely not by demeaning the other team.
I work at the pugula and I know about this chant they do during games, and it’s only the Roar Section that says “you suck” after they introduce every player from the opposing team, and I used to like watching the games, but after they starting degrading everyone who wasn’t them, I’ve lost all respect for the students that come to cheer and the arena for letting them do that. Its disgusting, but what’s more funny is Pennstate hockey loses all the time even after saying the other team sucks, karmas a bitch ain’t it.