We’re halfway through the term already, and let’s be honest, we probably all need a little escape from the academic trenches that is midterm season.
“There’s gonna be something that everyone can enjoy at any sort of sporting event. So I think that if you have time, and you’d be willing to, I think it helps the competitors, but I think also it gives everyone just, you know, a fun little getaway,” says Noah Amenhauser, a junior on the men’s basketball team.
Even though the excitement of fall term is over, and we’re already halfway through this term, the excitement of sports at Gill Coliseum hasn’t stopped. It’s never too late to fill Gill, whether that’s for men’s and women’s basketball, gymnastics, or wrestling.
The reason that terms like “Fill Gill” and “Build the Dam” are so harped upon when it comes to sports is because showing up and out for our athletes matters. Katie Field, a freshman on the women’s basketball team, says over email that “the atmosphere that Beaver Nation creates every game would be missing” if no one showed up to the games.
“If you’re on the fence about attending a game, I’d say show up and help support us. It makes a huge difference and makes the games more fun for all of us,” Field says.
Amenhauser says that even if the stands were empty, there would obviously still be some sense of urgency, because you are playing someone in an opposing jersey, but, “knowing that, like no one’s here, it wouldn’t feel like a true gameday experience. If there wasn’t fans, the band, the dance team, like, it wouldn’t truly feel like a game day experience.”
He also speaks on how the crowds elevate the emotional side of the game.
“It’s like Spartans, like the 300, that’s one of my favorite movies. It’s having that guy by your side. But it’s a whole crowd of people that are behind you, which I think is awesome,” he says.
Sydney Potter, a kinesiology major whose minoring in aging studies and music performance, and a third year band member, says, “There have been games where there’s players playing, and if people don’t show up, sometimes they do a little bit worse, because they don’t have fans cheering for them.”
The time she puts into band is, “so worth it, because playing for people is so much fun, and because then you’re being a part of a group that you could maybe recruit others, because they see you having so much fun, and then they want to join.”
Potter says her favorite part of gamedays in the band is doing horn swings with her clarinet and following along with the dance and cheer team in the stands. She loves being a part of the hype that makes the energy in Gill go “crazy and wild.”
“The atmosphere is insane,” Potter says.
Amenhauser talks about his first experience hearing the full band in Gill and how loud it was, saying it gave him “total chills.” He could not believe how much power was behind the sound saying that it evoked, “just an unbelievable amount of emotion as a competitor,” comparing it to a war cry.
He also shouts out the dance team, saying they do an unbelievable job as well. “I know they work super hard just being able to, you know, I could never do half the stuff they do. I’m not flexible enough or coordinated enough to do that,” he says.
Having the band and the cheer and dance teams is, “not only for us players, but for the fans,” notes Amenhauser. Whatever is filling up the environment in Gill, it allows for people to engage in different ways. Whatever their interests may be, the environment “elevates everyone’s experience; the fans, the players, everyone.”
Even if you don’t know a lot about the sport, Potter says that “there’s always something in the crowd going on that’s fun to look at.”
“We have a great program, we have a great team that Coach Tinkle put together, and I think that we play a very fun style of basketball that, I mean, it’s going to be fun to come watch. And I mean, we play some of the best competition in the country,” says Amenhauser.
He goes on to talk about his team members as well. “We have a great group of guys from all over the world. I don’t think there’s another program in this country that has just the diversity that we have on our program,” says Amenhauser.
“Just the different cultures, different languages, just all from different walks of life. I think just having that has been the coolest thing for me, being a part of this team,” says Amenhauser.
Amenhauser emphasizes how important a home court advantage is with large crowds.
Amenhauser says, “Having a space where it’s engagement, not only from the guys on your team, but the environment around you, I think it brings a level of aura in just how you play.”
To keep up with the action in Gill Coliseum, and be a part of the Dam Nation, during winter term follow the Beavers on Instagram!
For more sports information follow OMN Sports and Beaver Athletics!
