School spirit reigns at Bobcat Madness

Kendyl Wade

Freshman forward Austin Card participated in a practice game against other members of the men’s basketball team on Wednesday, Oct. 17, at Bobcat Madness in the Centennial Center.

Hundreds of students showed off their Bobcat pride at the annual Bobcat Madness last Wednesday. With a good turnout and school spirit to boot, this year’s rally proved successful.

When the doors opened at 7:30 p.m., students grabbed their glow sticks and seats for a basketball rally full of dancing, contests and scrimmage matches by the athletes.

Partnering with the Department of Athletics, Thunder Crew used around one-fourth of the funds given to them by the Student Government Association to put together the event. Thunder Crew president Tyler Kemp elaborated on the expense list for the night.

“We paid $2,700 for the T-shirts, the band and the tailgating food,” Kemp said. “The athletic department paid for the glow sticks, which were $326.”

With around 1,100 students showing up for the rally, this Bobcat Madness had a slightly smaller turnout than last year.

“Last year we had around 1,500 students,” Kemp said. “It’s kind of disappointing compared to this year though, since we thought everyone loved it last year.”

Around 400 students participated in the tailgating event, filling the front row of the commuter parking lot behind Napier Hall.

One of the newer additions to Bobcat Madness was the women’s basketball scrimmage match. Sophomore guard Saidat Ogbemudia was excited to see all the students and scrimmage against her fellow teammates.

“It was really great to see all the fans come out to have a good time,” Ogbemudia said. “When we came in, the atmosphere was really good and the fans were cheering. We are all just very competitive and the fact that there was dancing on the line for the loser made us want to win even more.”

Junior physics and engineering major Quin Bivins spoke of what this season had in store for the fans.

“This year you can expect us to do more running and gunning like in the scrimmage match,” Bivins said. “We’re a real up-tempo type team, fast and quick. We don’t have a whole lot of size this year, so we’re really going to focus on our speed.”

Many of the students were thrilled with the night’s events including the new class of freshmen.

Freshman business major Willie Ledezma praised the atmosphere and school spirit of the students.

“I felt like the even was the start of a football game, only replace football with basketball,” Ledezma said. “I also look at it as a stress reliever since a lot of studying has been happening right now.”

Bobcat Madness has played a pivotal role in the season, allowing fans to become acquainted with the team and get to know the athletes they’re rooting for.

“The students get the chance to really notice who the players are, instead of just seeing the eight to ten players you normally see at game,” Bivins said.

With the season already off to a great start, Kemp was hopeful of the new class of freshmen who attended.

“The majority of the people there at the event were new freshmen who don’t know very much about our basketball team,” Kemp said. “It’s the first big sporting event they’ve been to at Georgia College. Hopefully the amount of freshmen we had there last night will turn into a positive relationship and get people to come out to the games.”

Posted by Scott Carranza on Oct 25 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.