It cheers our hearts and warms our blood to hear them shout and roar.
These words should be very familiar to any U. Va. student. Whether you're in Scott Stadium singing it after every Virginia touchdown or you belt it out with friends on New Year's Eve, most Wahoos can recite the Good Ol' Song on demand.
The problem is, when it comes to the energy behind the basketball program and the attendance at University Hall, most people's hearts are leftempty of cheer.
Sure, there has been plenty of shouting going on during the past couple of seasons, but it has usually been angry and directed at then-head coach Pete Gillen or moody, underachieving big man Elton Brown. And usually, the only roaring going on comes from the sounds of cars leaving the parking lot as fast as they can before the game even finishes.
The lack of support and general frustration with the basketball program here among students is not a secret. The athletic department knows that and has taken steps to try and change the atmosphere and bring Virginia back to the days of the 80s and 90s when students didn't view the men's basketball program as a joke.
Because that is how they feel right now -- and who can blame them?
With more than five years gone by since the last NCAA tournament appearance and a last-place finish in the ACC last season, the level of apathy that students have reached is understandable.
For the first time in several years, however, Virginia fans have some things to be excited about going into this season. Pete Gillen is gone after seven years on the job, and his replacement -- former DePaul coach and Jim Calhoun protégé Dave Leitao -- seems to be the right man for the job. On top of that, the Cavaliers are a year away from moving into the state-of-the-art John Paul Jones arena, touted by Athletic Director Craig Littlepage as a facility that will be "the best in the country."
There is a potential problem with this new stadium: it holds over 15,000 fans. Virginia students rarely fill out their allotment of seats in University Hall -- barely half the size of the new arena. The athletic department is hoping that the establishment of the Hoo Crew will help to avoidthe embarrassment of a new arena with empty seats and unenthusiastic fans.
Modeled off the "Screamin' Deacons" fan group at Wake Forest, student have to pay an entry fee of 20 dollars and must show up at every single men's basketball game (or find someone to go in their stead) in exchange for priority seating at the games. Schools like Duke and Maryland don't need to take those kinds off steps, since they have an energetic student fan population that comes to almost every game in swarms. And it seems like the main reason Wake Forest initiated such a program was to emerge from the shadows cast by nearby Duke, North Carolina, and to some extent N.C. State as part of their unofficial "Wake The Neighbors" campaign. For Virginia, it seems like desperation was the driving force behind the establishment of the Hoo Crew.
Even during the dismal 2004-05 campaign, the Cavaliers received support from a handful of die hard fans who would show up to games in bright orange and do all they could to increase the volume level and create a home court advantage. The problem was that there was only about 200 students by my estimate that fell into that category, far too low a number for a school that expects to compete for an ACC title. Considering that the athletic department is reserving the entire lower bowl behind one of the hoops (sections 23-26) as well as all of section 24 in the upper bowl, they are going to need more than just a couple hundred devoted fans.
As Littlepage's claim that the JPJ will be the best facility in the nation makes clear, this arena (along with the hiring of Leitao) is supposed to help turn this program around. According to the 19-page promotional booklet on the arena, John Paul Jones will not only be the finest college basketball facility in the country, but will become one of the most prestigious venues in all of sports.
"Legendary venues have played host to some of the best competition in their respective sports -- Augusta National Golf Club, Yankee Stadium, Lambeau Field -- all unique in design, steeped in character and part of championship lore," the introduction reads. "In the fall of 2006 the John Paul Jones arena will become such a venue."
Comparing the yet-to-be-opened JPJ to The House That Ruth Built may be a bit of a stretch, but next to the bold statement was a picture of Virginia legend Ralph Sampson posting up on Georgetown's Patrick Ewing. Seeing this should remind readers of the days when Sampson and the Cavaliers could compete with the best of the best.
Unfortunately, I don't get the same kind of reassurance when I picture Tunji Soroye trying to post up on Wake Forest's Eric Williams.
The least Virginia fans can do is create an environment where Williams and his teammates feel intimidated when they come to Charlottesville. The Hoo Crew seems to be a step in that direction, even if the U.Va. student population is a couple of years away from establishing the kind of home court advantage that ACC schools are legendary for.
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