Any soccer fan that has visited Klöckner Stadium has heard it. They’ve felt it. They’ve probably even participated in it.
It is a racket, the metal bleachers quivering, starting with one or two enthusiastic pairs of shoes, until the sound of banging feet cascades over itself. It builds as a Virginia player approaches the corner flag, then sometimes hesitates in the buildup, then peaks just as the ball is struck.
“I’m surprised those rivets are holding up,” Coach George Gelnovatch said Thursday, gesturing at Klöckner’s metal bleachers.
Sometimes, during afternoon games with low attendance, it is merely a low thrum. But more often it appears as a thunderous rattle, one that threatens to drown out even the commentators. Dalen Cuff, ESPN’s lead ACC men’s soccer play-by-play man, has experienced it several times while calling games from the press box.
“[When] we get to corners, we try not to talk as much,” Cuff said. “Because let the people watching hear what that is and lay out, so they can kind of feel that atmosphere.”
The tradition has existed for as long as Gelnovatch can remember. He started coaching at Virginia in 1989. That would mean, by the numbers, that it has existed since Klöckner’s opening in 1992.
He called it “a great tradition,” and it is a special one, too. Other programs may also attract hordes of invested fans to their games, raucous supporters of their teams. Few stadiums, though, have the metal bleachers that make the bleacher-stomping possible. Clemson’s Historic Riggs Field, for example, draws hordes of fans, but its stone bleachers preclude stomping.
The stomping typically corresponds with Virginia corner kicks. The ball goes out of play in the opponent’s defensive half, the referee points to the corner flag and a few moments later some hardy soul commences banging their feet, and everyone else follows.
There exist multiple approaches, different methods of drumming up the most noise. Some opt for the one-foot approach, alternating left and right stomps. Some prefer to smack down two feet at a time, maybe holding onto the bleacher to generate maximum leverage. Some rip their heels backward, much to the exasperation of the tradition’s detractors.
Second-year College student Ryan Berman, who attends many home soccer games, favors the alternating style.
“But I’m open to suggestions,” Berman said.
As energetic as the crowd often gets, Berman noted, fans sometimes struggle to maintain energy during long stretches without goals. He pointed out there are no “ultras” at Klöckner, referencing the diehard supporters synonymous with some professional soccer clubs, the ones who beat drums behind the goal and chant for all 90 minutes. So the Cavalier tradition injects the game with excitement.
“It provides energy and a little bit of buzz,” Cuff said. “It’s something the players can expect and respond to there.”
Some of the players hardly register the commotion. Junior defender Nick Dang, for one, is usually preoccupied — focused on something else, whether tracking a run or organizing teammates. But he does enjoy the excitement.
“I don’t really notice it,” Dang said. “But I think it definitely helps, just having that noise.”
Some of his teammates, similarly, appreciate the fan engagement and mostly just tune out the noise. But the din can also be distracting, like your own fans are trying to drown you out. Junior goalkeeper Colin Gallagher has heard mixed reviews from his teammates.
“Actually, it makes it more difficult to focus in that moment,” Gallagher said. “But as far as getting the fans involved and stuff, it’s super cool.”
He remembers his recruiting visit, watching the tradition unfold. He smiled recounting the memory.
“It’s what makes Klöckner special,” Gallagher said.
Nobody argues with that. But the stomping does frustrate some, and there are many who find it counterintuitive and to the home team’s disadvantage. In no other sport, fourth-year Commerce student Ethan Johnson mentioned, do fans make noise when their own team has the ball.
It also sometimes seems to make no sense. Virginia often favors short corners, delaying the actual cross by a few seconds, letting the noise dissipate before its supposed climax.
“We’ll get really, really rallied up,” Johnson said. “And then it’s a short corner.”
The player who receives the pass will take a touch. By the time he draws back his foot, swinging the ball into the box, the noise is gone.
“Fine by me,” Johnson said. “Because now the person setting it up has some time to think without the screeching sound of bleachers in their ears.”
But Johnson certainly appreciates the energy it brings. And the few times when corners produce goals are special. Take, for example, Virginia’s Oct. 4 game against then-No. 19 Virginia Tech, the turning point of this men’s soccer season. Virginia scored late in the first half to take the lead, but it needed insurance.
The game, which drew 2,813 fans, marked the season’s largest home attendance. Roughly 10 minutes into the second half, up came a corner kick, and along came the stomping feet, the rattling bleachers, the swell of noise.
The ball swung in, then got headed away. In stepped junior midfielder Albin Gashi, who strode onto the loose ball and hammered it home for the eventual game winner. The fans, with the noise from the bleachers still lingering in the air, erupted anew.
“When they do [score],” Cuff said, “there’s a crescendo that is not common, for sure, in college soccer. Because you’re building to that moment. And there’s a massive release.”
The Cavaliers will hope to produce another moment like that Sunday, when they host West Virginia at 5 p.m. in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Virginia has not played a game at Klöckner since the end of October.
“I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve been home,” Gelnovatch said. “So it will be nice to be home. But the fan support’s been great.”
Virginia averages the 15th-best home attendance in Division 1. The fans will be there Sunday.
And the bleachers? They will be rattling.
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