As the men’s basketball team embarks on the arduous journey of building a solid program from scratch, the team’s spirit organization, Blue Crew, will also attempt to organize their ranks and spark student interest in games.
Blue Crew plans to host more events like the one on Nov. 13 in order to promote Billiken basketball and raise student excitement on campus.
Festivities at the event included free Qdoba, a player meet and greet for all fans in attendance, basketball and dodgeball in the practice facilities, some late night Rock Band, and the option of camping out in Chaifetz Arena overnight.
In the past, Blue Crew received criticism for not cheering loud enough or for lack of attendance to games; however, Blue Crew President Ben Hendrix, a junior, intends to begin changing that perception this season. Hendrix hopes getting the word out inspires more students to check out games this season.
“We actually have a lot of ways of letting people know about events this year,” Hendrix said. “We’ve got the banner next to the stairwell in the BSC, which we will be updating, the e-mail list for anyone who is in Blue Crew and we might do fliers at some point as well.”
After a lackluster showing from Blue Crew last year, leadership has embraced the importance of spreading the word and hosting quality events. There will not be another campout in Chaifetz this season; however many more events are on the slate, including a “Blue Crew Week,” which will occur next semester, according to Hendrix.
Blue Crew will also provide pizza to members before each game and a couple more free shirts over the course of the season.
Although Blue Crew leaders like Hendrix will be important to success for the spirit group this year, regular members expect to step up and create some lasting traditions.
“We’re trying to have more unifying traditions where we intersperse throughout the crowd and lead everybody in cheers as one cohesive group,” said Mike Putnam, a sophomore member of Blue Crew.
Putnam, who is not a member of any sort of executive board, helped organize the student section to pop paper bags when the Billikens made their first shot during the UMSL game. It may seem small, but he hopes traditions like these will earn the respect of the student section as a whole and legitimize Blue Crew’s presence at games.
