When it comes to soccer fans, I like mine loud and scarved. A shot of European aggression never hurts either.
Last October, 50 of the rowdiest, most bloodthirsty soccer fans Charlottesville has to offer piled on a bus and set out for Virginia Tech Soccer Stadium in Blacksburg. These hardened veterans of football pitches from Madrid to Paraguay knew exactly what their mission was on that crisp fall day: create enough mayhem to pull the Cavalier men's soccer team through one of the most hostile games of the season and send the players home with a win. Making it back alive themselves would be a secondary consideration.
Led by iron-lunged third-years Eric Stricklin, Eddie McDonnell and Sebastian Arze, the "Wahooligans," as they're known in Klöckner, had been preparing for this day for two years.
It all started by chance during their first year on the third floor of the Tuttle dormitory when Stricklin, who grew up in Dubai, McDonnell, a Richmond native, and Arze, hailing from Paraguay, decided to watch their first soccer game as Wahoos.
Accustomed to the crowds at premier European club games (which often mix elements of Braveheart, street riots, choir practice and occasionally murder), the three were surprised at the church-like atmosphere they found in the stands watching one of the top college teams in the country.
"We had seen students get loud for football, so why not soccer?" Stricklin remembers asking. "I grew up watching Premiership highlights every morning and going to stadiums across Europe where the atmosphere was a lot better. U.Va. was good, but the crowd was lame."
Though most students would have gone home or grumbled quietly in the stands, Stricklin and Co. decided they weren't going to spend four years politely golf-clapping their way through soccer games.
Instead, they began gathering friends, putting together a song list, painting a giant orange flag and warming up their voices for the Cavaliers' next home game. They were betting that the Klöckner crowd and the opposing team wouldn't see it coming.
Sure enough, the next time the Virginia players and coaches took the field they were greeted by cheers, songs and a solid wall of noise for 90 straight minutes.
At every home game (and many away games) since then, the Wahooligans have grown in number, from the original three founders to a roster numbering somewhere in the dozens today. In the stands, they are led by Arze (known as "El Capitan" to the Wahooligan faithful), who serves as the master of hype and the musical director.
Rounding out Arze's repertoire this season are cheers ranging from the classic "Ole" to "El Tema" and the trademark call-and-response "Pressure" chant led by El Capitan himself.
Shortly after the group's founding -- and possibly because he suddenly needed earplugs on one end of the field -- Virginia coach George Gelnovatch got in touch with Stricklin about the future of the Wahooligans.
"Coach Gelnovatch said we were great, that the players loved it and that we should get in touch with the athletic department to get some help," Stricklin said.
That led to the decision to outfit the Wahooligans in custom scarves, a move aimed to distinguish the group from the less rambunctious and broader-based Hoo Crew. This season, their third in existence, the Wahooligans seem to finally have the membership, fashion statement and sheer decibel level working in their favor.
Which brings us back to the game against Virginia Tech.
After falling behind 1-0, the Cavaliers were in need of some serious momentum in front of a brutal road crowd. The Wahooligans, 50 strong in the stands, were trying desperately to create as much noise as possible while ignoring jeers and taunts from the Hokie cheering section.
Stricklin, who had accidentally left his camera on, recorded it all.
In an attempt to boost the team and hold off the increasingly aggressive Hokie faithful, Arze summoned his followers to full strength once more. Just 43 seconds after the Tech goal, and amid the deafening roars of his own fans 140 miles from home, Cavalier Adam Cristman headed in a corner kick to tie the game before putting the Hoos ahead a few minutes later with a 16-yard laser beam to the back of the net.
Listening to the tape, which sounds like it was recorded off the back of a fighter jet, you can almost hear the Hokie fans shrivel up from embarrassment.
Although not every game can end with a bus-full of delirious Cavalier faithful drowning out the Hokies, the Wahooligans make it a practice to bring a little bit of Manchester to Charlottesville on a weekly basis.
So go out and join them if you've got the passion of a Spaniard, the lungs of an Englishman and the enthusiasm of an El Salvadorian. Scarves will be provided.
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