Kudos to the Admin

[CajunFun]

A few weeks back I complained about the unpleasantly loud music and public address screaming at football games, and how it seemed at times to be counter-productive: people would start yelling, the music would crank up, the announcer would scream... and people would stop yelling. I got some push back here for the comment.

Well, I don’t know if someone at Martin or Reinhardt read it, but last home game the music and yelling were more muted.

So I got to work.

Now, in addition to my other observations in my post about our culture, one of the things that is great about the egalitarian attitudes of the Cajuns & Creoles, is that you can go to a festival, or a game, or any place people are supposed to be boisterous, and you can be crazy. You can cut up, have fun, and on Monday? No one thinks you’re a wacko.

So with the music dampened, I started yelling my head off at key points in the game. At first my daughter was a bit weirded out (not really, I mean the poor kid’s had to live with me for 13 years now). But after a bit, she joined me, and we got headaches we yelled so loud.

When we started, the people around us were a bit skeptical, but then something great happened. They started yelling. By the end of the game, we probably had about 30 or 40 people yelling with us. But since we were in the upper home side, some of that noise carried down and out, and I think it helped grow the general noise level. There was one point late in the game that, despite the skimpy crowd, the GA State QB had to call time out, apparently from the noise.

Screaming and acting like a nutjob from time to time is good for us. It’s therapeutic, it’s cathartic. This is why we dance. This is why we sing (even if only in the shower). This is why we go out and do exhausting work or exercise. We enjoy it. After we do these things, we feel tired, but otherwise we feel pretty good.

People here can be generous with their advise about how to improve UL athletics. The admin should do this, the coach should do that, the students should do some other thing.

What about us? What should we do?

Or: What could we do?

I know a guy who was a USL equipment manager many years ago, and he told me of a game with only about 22K people, where the Cajuns were trying to stop an opponent on our goal line. He said it was like people beating him on the chest. People love to scream, yell, and let loose.

And Cajuns and Creoles are better at it than anyone.

Now, a pertinent aside: Back around the 2000 season, a group of us-- a few of them are still here in this forum-- decided to start tailgating together. Back then, attendance was so sparse, at the games and at tailgating, you could have fired birdshot and not hit anyone. But rather than tailgate near the stadium, which was wide open, we decided to tailgate at the Eauque™, the big tree across from present-day Agave. The reasoning was that Cajuns & Creoles love to get together and have a good time. If the people driving by saw other people tailgating, they might join us.

A lot of things happened around the same time, so we can’t take all the credit. But it wasn’t too many years before we had to pay for the spot; then tailgaters boxed us in on either side; then they carved up the Eauque™ into 4 tailgating spots. And finally, it just got to be too crowded, too loud, and too expensive, and we gave up the spot.

But our plan worked. The Eauque™ is still one of the prime tailgating spots at Cajun Field, and a lot of people tailgate along the fence. The point is, it only took a few of us to have an impact, to get the ball rolling. And then it accelerated.

So here is something simple we can all do to help UL athletics grow: Go to the games and yell like hell. Others will join you, and we’ll all will have more fun. They people around you will be more likely to come back. They might also bring their friends.

Oh, and if you can, try to move higher in your section; the people in front of you are more likely to join in.

Now, I want to add another observation, an embarrassed confession really. Some of you know that I was a cheerleader at UL. A few know that I was in band in high school.

I’m not embarrassed about either of those, I’m actually grateful that I had the experiences.

I’m embarrassed because in neither case did I really do my job. Don’t get me wrong, our band and the cheerleading squad won a lot of awards. We worked hard, we practiced, we executed.

But our first job as cheerleaders wasn’t to do double stunts, pyramids, tumbling, or fancy routines.

And our first job in the band wasn’t to play snappy tunes, to march, or even to polish our buttons (old days, they were brass, and they were a beech tree to polish).

Our first job was to support the team. Our job was to motivate the crowd.

And yet, with all of the long hours and hard work we did, I don’t remember anyone in the band or the cheerleading squad ever even talking about whether or not we were motivating the crowd.

In our defense, I don’t know of any cheerleaders at any school, any level, (except Texas A&M, and they’re yell leaders) who even think about such things. Same thing with the band. We all do it the way the ‘big boys' do, we mimic the 'successful' programs. And it never occurs to us that they don’t know any better than we do.

So what could we fans do, if we realized that part of our job is to get fired up, get others fired up, and get the team fired up… and to increase attendance by doing it all? What could our spirit squads and the bands do to help us with that?

Here’s the exciting point: if we just start the conversation, we will become the pioneers, the trailblazers, the innovators. Because as I said, no one else is even considering these things.

This is another chance for UL to become the school that other schools study and emulate.

[cajun4life]

TLDR

lol all points were valid and necessary

[CajunJack55]

Whew..need a cigarette after that post…

[Crawfish]

I actually agree with the good doctor's advice this time.

One small point of difference though: I was also a member of a high school and university band. In both cases we tried to provide support the football team while still performing and entertaining the crowd. In college, my Kappa Kappa Psi brothers and I tried to make certain that the band members were engaged in the game.

In any case, there were many good points made.

[BayouRichard]

A few weeks back I complained about the unpleasantly loud music and public address screaming at football games, and how it seemed at times to be counter-productive: people would start yelling, the music would crank up, the announcer would scream... and people would stop yelling. I got some push back here for the comment.

Well, I don’t know if someone at Martin or Reinhardt read it, but last home game the music and yelling were more muted.

So I got to work.

Now, in addition to my other observations in my post about our culture, one of the things that is great about the egalitarian attitudes of the Cajuns & Creoles, is that you can go to a festival, or a game, or any place people are supposed to be boisterous, and you can be crazy. You can cut up, have fun, and on Monday? No one thinks you’re a wacko.

So with the music dampened, I started yelling my head off at key points in the game. At first my daughter was a bit weirded out (not really, I mean the poor kid’s had to live with me for 13 years now). But after a bit, she joined me, and we got headaches we yelled so loud.

When we started, the people around us were a bit skeptical, but then something great happened. They started yelling. By the end of the game, we probably had about 30 or 40 people yelling with us. But since we were in the upper home side, some of that noise carried down and out, and I think it helped grow the general noise level. There was one point late in the game that, despite the skimpy crowd, the GA State QB had to call time out, apparently from the noise.

Screaming and acting like a nutjob from time to time is good for us. It’s therapeutic, it’s cathartic. This is why we dance. This is why we sing (even if only in the shower). This is why we go out and do exhausting work or exercise. We enjoy it. After we do these things, we feel tired, but otherwise we feel pretty good.

People here can be generous with their advise about how to improve UL athletics. The admin should do this, the coach should do that, the students should do some other thing.

What about us? What should we do?

Or: What could we do?

I know a guy who was a USL equipment manager many years ago, and he told me of a game with only about 22K people, where the Cajuns were trying to stop an opponent on our goal line. He said it was like people beating him on the chest. People love to scream, yell, and let loose.

And Cajuns and Creoles are better at it than anyone.

Now, a pertinent aside: Back around the 2000 season, a group of us-- a few of them are still here in this forum-- decided to start tailgating together. Back then, attendance was so sparse, at the games and at tailgating, you could have fired birdshot and not hit anyone. But rather than tailgate near the stadium, which was wide open, we decided to tailgate at the Eauque™, the big tree across from present-day Agave. The reasoning was that Cajuns & Creoles love to get together and have a good time. If the people driving by saw other people tailgating, they might join us.

A lot of things happened around the same time, so we can’t take all the credit. But it wasn’t too many years before we had to pay for the spot; then tailgaters boxed us in on either side; then they carved up the Eauque™ into 4 tailgating spots. And finally, it just got to be too crowded, too loud, and too expensive, and we gave up the spot.

But our plan worked. The Eauque™ is still one of the prime tailgating spots at Cajun Field, and a lot of people tailgate along the fence. The point is, it only took a few of us to have an impact, to get the ball rolling. And then it accelerated.

So here is something simple we can all do to help UL athletics grow: Go to the games and yell like hell. Others will join you, and we’ll all will have more fun. They people around you will be more likely to come back. They might also bring their friends.

Oh, and if you can, try to move higher in your section; the people in front of you are more likely to join in.

Now, I want to add another observation, an embarrassed confession really. Some of you know that I was a cheerleader at UL. A few know that I was in band in high school.

I’m not embarrassed about either of those, I’m actually grateful that I had the experiences.

I’m embarrassed because in neither case did I really do my job. Don’t get me wrong, our band and the cheerleading squad won a lot of awards. We worked hard, we practiced, we executed.

But our first job as cheerleaders wasn’t to do double stunts, pyramids, tumbling, or fancy routines.

And our first job in the band wasn’t to play snappy tunes, to march, or even to polish our buttons (old days, they were brass, and they were a beech tree to polish).

Our first job was to support the team. Our job was to motivate the crowd.

And yet, with all of the long hours and hard work we did, I don’t remember anyone in the band or the cheerleading squad ever even talking about whether or not we were motivating the crowd.

In our defense, I don’t know of any cheerleaders at any school, any level, (except Texas A&M, and they’re yell leaders) who even think about such things. Same thing with the band. We all do it the way the ‘big boys' do, we mimic the 'successful' programs. And it never occurs to us that they don’t know any better than we do.

So what could we fans do, if we realized that part of our job is to get fired up, get others fired up, and get the team fired up… and to increase attendance by doing it all? What could our spirit squads and the bands do to help us with that?

Here’s the exciting point: if we just start the conversation, we will become the pioneers, the trailblazers, the innovators. Because as I said, no one else is even considering these things.

This is another chance for UL to become the school that other schools study and emulate.

Good post. Thanks for the insight.

[VObserver]

Good post. I will say that we did not give up our sites at the Eauque because of cost; Cajun Express gave up his because he was unable to attend games for reasons not related to cost, and even so, he kept it for a couple of years after he had to stop coming to games. I gave up my Eauque spot about 3 years after Express because many of the Eauque Tree Gang, including you, had moved out of state for economic or other reasons, and several others just got too old to travel from New Orleans or Houston when they could watch at home. I really saw no need to keep a spot when I was often the only person who showed up.

[JMV JustMyView]

Good post. I will say that we did not give up our sites at the Eauque because of cost; Cajun Express gave up his because he was unable to attend games for reasons not related to cost, and even so, he kept it for a couple of years after he had to stop coming to games. I gave up my Eauque spot about 3 years after Express because many of the Eauque Tree Gang, including you, had moved out of state for economic or other reasons, and several others just got too old to travel from New Orleans or Houston when they could watch at home. I really saw no need to keep a spot when I was often the only person who showed up.

Wasn't BeauCajun part of that group?

[BeauCajun]

Wasn't BeauCajun part of that group?

Nope. But I did make a pass a few times.

[Louisiana84]

Good post. I will say that we did not give up our sites at the Eauque because of cost; Cajun Express gave up his because he was unable to attend games for reasons not related to cost, and even so, he kept it for a couple of years after he had to stop coming to games. I gave up my Eauque spot about 3 years after Express because many of the Eauque Tree Gang, including you, had moved out of state for economic or other reasons, and several others just got too old to travel from New Orleans or Houston when they could watch at home. I really saw no need to keep a spot when I was often the only person who showed up.

Still miss hanging with you guys. We need a reunion.