A week or two ago, I had spare time on my hands (I know, right?). With this time, I decided to go support our women’s basketball team for one of their games. I took a seat among the largest group of ACU fans just behind the backboard. A LYNAY scholarship group was there for some kind of credit. Wildcat Reign, the organization responsible for getting students hyped up for our college’s sporting events, was present as usual and as rowdy as ever in the front row.
While I was cheering on the game, I couldn’t help but hear the Wildcat Reign group in the front row, not only because they were a lively group, but because of their”¦ creative, yet discouraging remarks about the other team. In other words, it seemed like they were using every legal way to get the opposing team off of their game.
A young woman who was part of the LYNAY group also heard Wildcat Reign’s cheers and gave a piece of her mind to the rowdy front row. It was a very powerful speech that I can’t put here due to length, but it had no effect. The front row shrugged it off and carried on with their insults.
To the young LYNAY lady: I respect your gumption to express your concerns right then and there. Keep being bold. The following is secondary gumption, and where the “opinion” in “Opinion Column” kicks in.
Frankly, I don’t like it when people call out their insults to the court. It’s rude and distasteful. In addition, for everyone else who is associated with the name caller, it creates a bad reputation. I wouldn’t be as worried if it were just a few individuals in a crowd, but seeing an organization like Wildcat Reign exhibiting this behavior makes me wonder if we are putting our money in the right place.
Even at a Christian university, I understand that not everyone is going to be Christian. But maybe a student organization like Wildcat Reign should be held to the same Christian standards as the university. As a Christian, I understand the ability to take a few verbal abuse punches and be unwavered, but should we also be the ones throwing them?
Wildcat Reign, I actually know some of you guys, I even ball with some of you for goodness sakes! So you can either listen to a friend and lend an ear or shrug off a column made by some wannabe writer. At these sporting events, what visiting teams see you do is the only taste that they will see of our student body, and if all they see you do is call out distasteful dialogue, I can imagine what they think of the rest of us who just wanted to watch a good sports game.
