School Spirit
Growing up a New Yorker college athletics were sort of an unknown phenomenon to me. I followed the bowl games when the end of December rolled around, and always got into March Madness, but outside of those two big events I barely followed college sports. It seems that the culture of college athletics simply is different in the south when compared to the north.
Before I got to Vandy, school spirit and athletics didn’t really weigh into my selection process. I viewed such opportunities as an added bonus but obviously did not hold them in high regard, as my other top choices didn’t have bigtime athletics. In retrospect I think its pretty odd I overlooked this area of college life, as an avid sports fan and someone who has grown to thrive in the college athletic scene.
After a surprisingly successful football season my freshman year I attended my first college bowl game and loved it. Riding this high I had lofty expectations for a young and inexperienced basketball team that turned in a disappointing season. Yet my passion for Vandy athletics returned this basketball season as our team, one year better, headed into “hell week” ranked 23rd facing Tennessee at Thompson-Boling Arena. Sitting in my dorm with a bunch of hall mates watching the game was awesome. All the doors on the hall were propped open, televisions blasting with shouts of “money” echoing through the hall as “Dolla” Beal pulled up and drained a three in Tennessee’s face ensuring the emphatic upset. People started running up and down the halls, high-fiving each other, clapping, and rooting for the now 5-0 commodores in the SEC. And while chest bumping my next-door neighbor I thought how different my college experience would have been at a different school, one lacking a competitive athletics program. As a formerly overlooked aspect of my selection process, I am very glad I have been able to now understand the aspect of college athletics I was formerly lacking. There is no way to adequately articulate what it was that I was missing, it’s more of an experienced that must be had.
Now securely ranked in the top 20, our commodores have their eyes set on the SEC tourney and the Dance.