If you could have bottled the electricity that was being
generated by the Mustang and Acorn fans in Live Oak’s gym Wednesday
night you could have lit up the enitire South Valley like a
Christmas Tree.
If you could have bottled the electricity that was being generated by the Mustang and Acorn fans in Live Oak’s gym Wednesday night you could have lit up the enitire South Valley like a Christmas Tree.
Both cheering sections were screaming like there was no tomorrow, their respective teams feeding off the crowd’s energy. And as both teams matched basket for basket and sent the thriller between the county rivals into overtime the fans took it to another level, not letting up until they’d yelled themselves hoarse.
To give you an idea of how intense and fanatical it actually got inside the gym you have to understand one important fact – I wasn’t even at the game!
The emotions were so over-the-top that when Ana Patejdl, the sports writer that covered the game for both Live Oak and Gilroy, returned to the office, she was still so pumped up by the epic classic she’d just witnessed, she could barely contain herself.
The more the two of us talked the more excited she got. There was more emotion in her voice from this one game than from any sporting event I’ve ever heard her relate first hand.
That got me thinking and reflecting on the fervor and sports fever that local fans generate at sporting events. I mean we’ve all been known to go absolutely ballistic and cheer our brains out during a game but it seems like there is nowhere, no other sport, where that fanaticism is more prevalent than at a basketball game, especially that is at the high school and college levels.
Now to the San Benito fans credit, I felt like I was in an enclosed stadium when I stood on the sidelines at San Jose University for the Large School Division championship football game.
When the ‘Balers pulled off the incredible title-winning drive in the game’s final seconds it was as explosive a reaction as I’ve ever been a part of. Truth is, the only outdoor sporting event that I can remember being louder, outside of the start of the Daytona 500 which is beyond deafening, was the Carolina Panthers playoff game several years ago against the Dallas Cowboys.
I can remember standing on the sidelines with another reporter with the Cowboys on their own 10-yard line and us standing just a few yards away. In trying to communicate with the other reporter I honestly screamed as loud as I could into his ear and I couldn’t hear the words even come out of my own mouth. Friends of mine said that they could hear the crowd noise – and they lived 20 minutes from the stadium.
Again, to the ‘Balers fans credit, this was second only to that event.
But let’s put this in perspective for a second, both that Carolina/Dallas game and the San Benito/Oak Grove game were playoff games. The Live Oak/Gilroy game the other night was a regular season game – and just the second league game at that.
Again, that prompted Ana and I to both admit there’s just nothing like a basketball game for its pure energy and fan enthusiasm. And in all my years of covering sports I have to say that there is one venue, Cameron Indoor Arena, that absolutely takes the cake for being the craziest place on earth.
I am by no means a Duke Blue Devil fan. In fact as a diehard UConn Huskies fan to say I detest the Blue Devils would be an understatement. That having been said I have to give credit where credit is due.
They really are the “Cameron Crazies.” I still have vivid memories of sitting on press row and having my lap top bounce up and down during the game. And while Cameron may be the pinnacle of the sport’s fanaticism they by no means have cornered the market.
High school gyms around this area have proved that. When you walk inside their arena for a basketball game you ought to be ready to be part of something extraordinary.
We’ve only played two games in TCAL and already all of the local teams, both boys and girls, have produced barnburner after barnburner. I don’t know about you, but I’m making it my resolution (why not, it is after all that time of year to make one) to do whatever I can to be at the next nailbiter.
So, check your local schedule, adorn yourself in those team colors, and bring lots and lots of lozenges – you’ll need them as you scream yourself silly.
Catch the fever of fan-atics everywhere. It’s coming to a local high school basketball arena near you. And believe me, you don’t want to miss it!
