GW fanfare falls epically short this year

In an earlier blog post, I wrote about that surprising lack of involvement and student support for GW sports. I grew up in Los Angeles, a die-hard UCLA fan with season tickets to games at Pauley Pavilion (the basketball mecca of the west coast, where they only hang banners for National Championships ((GW hangs banners for making the tournament)) ). In Westwood, success was not measured by regular season victories, those were expected, but rather by postseason accomplishments. But most of all UCLA knows how to fill a stadium. 

In the most recent Hatchet, there was an article highlighting the absences of the Colonial Army on campus this year. As a freshmen and a huge basketball fan, the fact that I never knew about the organization is somewhat shocking. I would have joined, I would have even paid the $15 membership fee. Yet I had no idea that such a group existed. The Hatchet wrote:

In a season when the men's basketball team needs the most support, its primary fan organization has largely fallen off the map.

I agree that fan support always helps a team. But maybe the situation is reversed. Maybe the fans fell off because the team didn't hold up their end of the deal. Also, the outreach to freshmen failed to bring support to the organization that relied on new student support. 

Part of the problem, Danau said, has been a lack of interest in the floundering men's basketball team from freshman - typically the group's most active members. More than 80 percent of this year's members returned from last year, and overall membership is significantly down from the group's peak in 2005-2006, when it had more than 1,000 members. Danau, Miller and Carpenter all said the group's role is to find creative ways to raise interest in the team when it is struggling.

I look forward to this organization reaching out to students like me. And until then, I hope I get an experience like this in my tenure at GW.