New Traditions

I have to confess. I wasn't a big rah-rah sort of guy back at the U. Never bothered going to a homecoming parade. Never went to the homecoming dance (although in fairness, the homecoming dance was put on by the black student union, which seemed sort of strange when I was a freshman, and was something that I never questioned in my years in Champaign). Didn't do the pep rally thing. I supported my team by getting tickets, and yelling at the game. Some of the time, I was yelling at our guys, and some of the time I was yelling at the refs, and some of the time I was yelling at the other team. I did a lot of yelling.

So, I've been going to the volleyball matches here in NOLA. And they do a really cool promo during the "halftime" between the 2nd and 3rd sets. They lay out a bunch of t-shirts on one side of the court, and then they have people from the stands come down, and hit serves at the shirts. Hit a shirt, and you win a shirt. Everyone participates. And if you miss, you can get back in line, if there's enough time.

I was a volleyball player back in the day. A pretty good one, relative to normal humans. I never had a great attacking serve, but I was always pretty accurate. I was able to steal a couple points here and there by hitting the back corner with a high ball that looks like it's going out. I could probably hit a 3' x 3' square in the back corner of the court once every three times, and could definitely land it within a 10'x10' most of the time. So, if you lay out a bunch of shirts across the net from me, I figure that for a given shirt, I'm about 1 in 4 to hit it. And if there are like 3 shirts within a 10' x 10' box, I'm probably slightly better than even money to hit a shirt.

I've been to three matches. I didn't bother going up to get a t-shirt at the first match, but I realized that I needed some Green Wave gear at some point. And free is always better than purchased. So, next game, I head up there. My first attempt misses by a couple feet. Not a great effort. But I go back in line, and get a 2nd shot. There was a cluster of 5 t-shirts. I aimed for the middle, and actually hit the middle shirt. Free shirt. Next match, I go back up, and see another nice cluster to aim at. And get another shirt. Two times on the court. 3 serves. 2 shirts. Pretty good hit ratio. This may replace laundry as a clothing option.

After the 2nd match I was at, I ran into one of my students, who happened to be a president of the student boosters club. He was on his way out to set up for a pep rally after the match, and told me that if I swung by, he'd get me a t-shirt. So, I figured that it would be good to get another t-shirt, as well as some free food, so I headed over to the pep rally after the volleyball match ended.

Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a pep rally. Not many students showed up. Aside from the club members, there were maybe 50 people there, mainly looking for free burgers. The band didn't make it. No coaches showed up. No players showed up. The cheerleaders were there... but let's face it... Matt Doherty's comments about the Duke cheerleaders back in the day are generally apt for our Green Wave squad. The cheerleaders saw the story, get everyone together for one cheer, and got the hell out of there. Generally speaking, it was a bad turnout. So the school spirit is still a work in progress. But, I got a burger and hot dog out of it, and a free t-shirt. All told, I'd call it a wash for myself.

Tonight is homecoming, and there's another pep rally scheduled for 7pm, along with some music afterward. I think that I'm going to show up and check things out. This is going to be a new tradition for me, I think. I have to convince myself that I now bleed Green and Blue (the modern colors) or Olive and Blue (the original colors, and the ones referred to in our fight song). I may have to actually go out there to see this up close for myself. And at the very least, there's a concert planned for after the pep rally...

-Chairman