2008 Woodie Awards
The ultimate Quinnipiac fan weekend
Daniel Baker
Issue date: 2/13/08 Section: Sports
Back in December when I was looking ahead to see what the sports schedule would look like for the upcoming semester, I noticed there was one interesting weekend.
It was a three day span between Feb. 7 and Feb. 9. All four teams that play at the TD Banknorth Sports Center would be playing home games or in the case of women's ice hockey, a road game just a short trip down Whitney Ave. at Yale. So I decided that I would dedicate this weekend to attending one game for each team and write about it from a fan's perspective. After 3 days, 4 games, 3 shuttle rides, and a partially strained voice, I have lived through the ultimate QU fan weekend.
The schedule played out like this: Thursday night men's basketball was taking on rival Central Connecticut at 7 p.m. On Friday night, men's hockey had a game against rival Yale at 7 p.m. On Saturday, there would be a doubleheader, women's basketball against Wagner at 1 p.m. and women's hockey at Yale at 4 p.m.
The first game on the schedule was men's basketball. My buddies and I jumped on the shuttle about a half hour before tip-off. On the drive over, when the shuttle made the turn onto Sherman, we hit the curb. I remember thinking that this could not be a good omen for the coming days.
When we finally got into the arena I was surprised at how many people were there to watch the game. I know that CCSU is right up the road in New Britain, so they would have plenty of fans travel to see the game. Also, this is a big intrastate rivalry, so it began to make sense why it was so crowded.
One of our buddies was there before us and he saved us seats in Section 111 Row 3. The best part about these seats was the fact that they were only a few feet away from the visiting bench and everyone's favorite coach, Mr. Howie Dickenman. Howie is an easy target because he flips out over everything and is constantly stepping on the court during game action.
I almost felt bad for him because he received a lot of attention from the student section. As the chants of "Howie" and "Sit down Howie" poured in his direction, I was close enough to see his jaw line tense up. I could tell that he heard what we were saying and clearly was getting to him and that's just awesome.
It was a three day span between Feb. 7 and Feb. 9. All four teams that play at the TD Banknorth Sports Center would be playing home games or in the case of women's ice hockey, a road game just a short trip down Whitney Ave. at Yale. So I decided that I would dedicate this weekend to attending one game for each team and write about it from a fan's perspective. After 3 days, 4 games, 3 shuttle rides, and a partially strained voice, I have lived through the ultimate QU fan weekend.
The schedule played out like this: Thursday night men's basketball was taking on rival Central Connecticut at 7 p.m. On Friday night, men's hockey had a game against rival Yale at 7 p.m. On Saturday, there would be a doubleheader, women's basketball against Wagner at 1 p.m. and women's hockey at Yale at 4 p.m.
The first game on the schedule was men's basketball. My buddies and I jumped on the shuttle about a half hour before tip-off. On the drive over, when the shuttle made the turn onto Sherman, we hit the curb. I remember thinking that this could not be a good omen for the coming days.
When we finally got into the arena I was surprised at how many people were there to watch the game. I know that CCSU is right up the road in New Britain, so they would have plenty of fans travel to see the game. Also, this is a big intrastate rivalry, so it began to make sense why it was so crowded.
One of our buddies was there before us and he saved us seats in Section 111 Row 3. The best part about these seats was the fact that they were only a few feet away from the visiting bench and everyone's favorite coach, Mr. Howie Dickenman. Howie is an easy target because he flips out over everything and is constantly stepping on the court during game action.
I almost felt bad for him because he received a lot of attention from the student section. As the chants of "Howie" and "Sit down Howie" poured in his direction, I was close enough to see his jaw line tense up. I could tell that he heard what we were saying and clearly was getting to him and that's just awesome.
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