UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

[unh_hockey]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

10 years ago you didn't need a concentrated effort to get the students riled up. It just happened. the whit was a hard place to play because of the verbal abuse the other team got. All of that started going away early this last decade as soon as the program moved more toward a corporate feel. I remember having jason tapp from BU call a cop on me after a few verbal lashings and the cop was all in my face. At least I got a story out of it - Tapp was a riot.

good times. I don't see college hockey becoming the ****show it once was. Maybe RIT is though...

[C-H-C]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

There must be a way to solve this problem without alienating any of the various "groups" who love UNH hockey. Matt, Darci, and the hosers have contributed countless hours of cheering, both home and away, and are an invaluable asset. The pep band, in its current seating arrangement at the Whit, is also critical.

[i'zonprize]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

Oh, she's my contact over there, so I'll get in touch with her.

Miss Goodwin.. Thanks so much for chiming in. I think the band in conjuction with fans can have a great overall impact for those who think they are 'too cool' to cheer.. they'll look like the odd balls at the end of the day- and they won't be having any fun.

I'll admit.. I was there in the Student section vs. BU on day one of the Whit and the first period was odd. I had NO IDEA what we were supposed to do. Even an older friend of mine had to repeatidly shout 'STAND UP' to nearly the entire section. as there were 2 classes FR's and SO's that really had no idea what was expected of them. But we eventually got it.. but at the same time.. many cheers from Snively I'm sure weren't carried over.(it was probably more than a decade that went by where the 'winning team, losing team' cheer went unspoken) And that I think is what it comes down to! This is COLLEGE! You're expected to CHEER! Many want to as well.. But unless those who knows the drill are consistantly leading, and it's coordinated and doing it every game.. it won't be expected.. The Hosers have a couple of moves that could easily be adaptable to the entire student section! Students need to leave the gym, telling their buddies/ girlfriends etc.. what a great time it was. Next thing you know both student section will fill up- making cheers even more fun and creative- and suddenly the meatheads shouting obscenities because there is nothing else going go will either join in or find somewhere else to be annoying. Most likely, it won't be inside the Whit.

Re: Tourney games.. well.. i don't know that there is a great solution.. but it would be great if there was a way to find the $ and get Students there. And if it's important enough to everyone, students, players, coaches, faculty and Admin as well as Alum.. it'll happen.

thanks again for speaking up!

[thecomicbookguy]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

In all honesty, my feeling is that the Hosers lead cheers because no one else does. When other people start a UNH cheer, or something, we try to join in, and keep the cheer going (and we try to drown out the vulgar/dumb cheers that crop up (the 3-beat "BC SUCKS" comes to mind)). If the band wants to start more cheers, I say go for it, we will cheer along. (One request - more of "In Heaven There is no Beer"! 1st and 3rd periods, maybe? )

I am friends with many of the Hosers and they do a great job with their cheers, but I feel like many of today's students just laugh at them instead of joining in.

These problems predate your matriculation at UNH. I remember games back in '03 or '04, before I even played the bell part-time, when I'd be visiting friends on the concourse between periods, and wouldn't make it back to my seat before puck drop. I'd be coming down the stairs during Go Fight Win, and there'd be no one clapping until I got down close to the glass. The fans at home games have been apathetic for years, and since well before the Hosers were even sitting together.

If it was actual students playing the bell and leading cheers, I think that could go a long way toward getting the entire section more involved. Heck, there is even a facebook group with a few thousand members calling for students to play the bell.

And yet, NO ONE has ever said anything to my face. They whine behind my back, in a facebook group I've never even seen, and not one of them has ever wandered down to the front row? It's not like I'm hard to find - I sit in the same ****ing seat each and every week.

It would be great to see a group of students wanting to take our place, but the fact is, I feel like I rarely see the same groups of fans at games, outside of the people I know. Even those body-painted guys can't be bothered to get to games early enough to get the same seats week after week.

[UNHKazooMonkey]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

with all due respect, we have given the band the bell duties at women's games (also the anthem practice for men's hockey) and they were horrible at it. And it was the percussion section

I'm not crapping on the band and they have made tremendous strides in becoming one of the best bands in hockey east. We work well together, maybe the other side of the fishtank should help out and join the cheers.

[thecomicbookguy]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

I'm not crapping on the band and they have made tremendous strides in becoming one of the best bands in hockey east. We work well together, maybe the other side of the fishtank should help out and join the cheers.

Are you referring to the group over there who'd rather chant "Pep band sucks" instead of a UNH cheer?

(And I concur, the band is excellent - Casey has done great work.)

[UNHKazooMonkey]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

Are you referring to the group over there who'd rather chant "Pep band sucks" instead of a UNH cheer?

aw, c'mon sucks is the new hi aren't all cheers supposed to have sucks in them?

[Wildcatfan]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

Because you'll sit in the balcony with the band and students at the Verizon during the regular season, but come playoffs it'd be compromising your seat integrity. If we spent as much time organizing and cheering as we do in disputes like these, the RIT Corner Crew would be our *****. Unfortunately things that should be simple, like getting the loudest people together instead turn in to bickering.

The difference is at the Verizon those ARE our seats; we don't randomly move up there. Darci didn't choose to sit with the band, the athletic department chose to put the band behind our seats. Honestly, if she's at regionals and spending $81 to see the games, let her sit wherever the heck she wants. I wasn't going to move up with the band either.

I know for a fact that we (UNH fans) were loud on Friday night against Cornell. We received several text messages from those watching the game at home stating so. I would agree that Saturday was a different story but the majority of those who made it for both nights barely had voices. I don't think sitting with the band would've changed that.

I'm all for working WITH the band because some things have worked well (e.g. Go Blue, Go White)but I don't think handing over the reigns to them is the right answer either. For starters, if they're going go do the cowbell, please get someone who can do it. The few times they've done it at women's games has not been good. We need someone that can play it as well as Adam, Matt, and Keith have done it in the past.

[UNHKazooMonkey]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

Because you'll sit in the balcony with the band and students at the Verizon during the regular season, but come playoffs it'd be compromising your seat integrity. If we spent as much time organizing and cheering as we do in disputes like these, the RIT Corner Crew would be our *****. Unfortunately things that should be simple, like getting the loudest people together instead turn in to bickering.

didn't you give up on the team after their come from behind win against UND and their outplaying national champion BU in the regional because you didn't like the direction of the team?

The first game you came down to the section was the Maine game and then we barely saw you until the final month of the season. I'm not trying to make this a personal attack but I think you are going after the wrong people in regards to the noise in the building.

FWIW, the RIT section didn't sit with their band either, does that make them evil? Our band could hear us, and they can start cheers whenever they want. We are all in it to make the most noise possible. I don't think i need to sit on a bandie's lap in order to show my love for UNH hockey.

[Wildcatfan]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

Are you referring to the group over there who'd rather chant "Pep band sucks" instead of a UNH cheer?

(And I concur, the band is excellent - Casey has done great work.)

I think so

Why do you think the band doesn't play "Let's Go Blue" anymore?

I also agree Casey has done a great job with the band and I enjoy having them near us

[cgoodwin]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

I was avoiding the past issues with band cowbelling (sure, that's a verb), but that's what I was getting at when I said there would be designated people to lead the cheers. Meaning, I'd train them in advance and make sure they really understood what they needed to do and when.

I'm tiptoeing here because I don't want to sound like I'm putting down any of my students. When it's come to us in the past, the students didn't know in advance they'd be doing it (it went to whomever happened to have a cowbell) and, not to over-dramatize it, the pressure got to them. I know it sounds stupid, but I watched it happen (and crumpled a little inside). It's the sort of thing that seemed easy enough in their heads, so they didn't think about it. Then when it came time to actually do it, they tanked. Anyway, we don't really need to get into it, but I guess what I'm trying to say is if we officially took it over, that wouldn't happen.

[JB]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

I think it is worth a try.

I just keep thinking:

1) Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

If it doesn't work I think you try something else.

What I can tell you is from somebody who spanned Snively to Manchester to the Whitt. It is currently broken.

I think the key is getting it back to the students, where it always was in the past.

[Verkligen]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

I got so frustrated last weekend seeing Cornell's and RIT's fans, because I don't know what we can do to get that level of participation. As someone else mentioned, they weren't just their students! Yes, getting more people to the road games would help, but even at home we can't get everyone to chant "U-N-H!" together, let alone clap in different directions or perform cheers with more than 3 syllables.

YES! Not to mention what the kids at Wisconsin do... And it clearly was their band that had the students up, moving, and hollering throughout the game. The entire crowd cheered at times other than when the Badgers scored. (Of course, they did that plenty often.)

And YES! Promote the heck out of fight songs and cheers.

At one point, I asked someone why folks didn't stand, clap, and sing along with the songs. This is a huge part of the tradition at many schools all over the place... My folks taught me the Iowa State Fight Song when I was 3.

This someone responded, "We're New Englanders. We don't sing." I say, "The heck with that. Learn On to Victory and sing it loud!"

[JB]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

YES! Not to mention what the kids at Wisconsin do... And it clearly was their band that had the students up, moving, and hollering throughout the game. The entire crowd cheered at times other than when the Badgers scored. (Of course, they did that plenty often.)

There are some things you just can't steal. I love the hop thing the student do at Wisconsin but this is something that can’t be lifted. I don't know exactly how to describe it. At the frozen 4 in Milwaukie it seemed 80% of the building was doing it. Crazy fans, but that craziness is a learned behavior.

One of the other things you see at other school, everyone where school colors. Not really at UNH.

Look at Maine at the garden students and the band playing cheers off each other.

That is where UNH needs to be (again) but it is a culture change (back) that needs to be introduced. It must be taught to UNH students that never learned. Somewhere, somehow along the way it wasn’t passed on and that caused it to be lost. The students at UNH today probably can’t imagine the craziness of that weekend in the spring of 1999 at the Whitt, so we must figure out how to teach them.

The key when the Whitt opened was juniors and seniors that had been at Snively and knew. They “taught” (by the loosest meaning of the word) freshman and sophomores that had never seen it. The difference is there were a bunch of them (I was a junior the year the Whitt opened). Now I think we have been more than 4 years and need to figure out how to teach a student body that no longer just knows.

[freak]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2010 off-season thread

The Hosers do a great job in what they do and I don't expect any of them to change their seats or routine to fix the problems at the Whitt.

That said, the status quo is simply unacceptable. Somebody, either individually or as a group, needs to take the initiative to change the dynamic.

I am working with a few people on some ideas for just such a thing next year. We want to build off of what the Hosers and the Pep Band already do, and hope that others will want to come along for the ride. As I said, collaboration with the Pep Band is essential to what I have in mind.

I realize this is a bit vague, but we're still in the very early stages. Hopefully as the offseason progresses more will come of it.