Well, let me chime in by saying that you guys hit the nail on the head so many times with your montages that a life-long carpenter would envy your work!
I want to add what I got, but it's not about the season but the work you guys, you SVRA's (I'll promptly change the Enforcers call, Aggressors it is!) contribution to the season.
I, Andrew, am the one in the white Gavey #10 jersey or black Ouellet #29 jersey down in section T, row 1, seat 14... I sit most prominently alongside my friends Chris (red Marsters #37 jersey) and Kerri (black Gavey #10 jersey)...
Last year I got hooked bad on Portland Pirates hockey, and so I became a season ticket holder... I started as a loner this season, there were only three or four people I knew. Over time (I think the halfway point of the season) I got to know Chris and Kerri... It was at that time you guys came into prominence...
I remember the first time you guys got going... I wasn't sure what your story was... I've seen groups come and groups go, and thought maybe you all scored tickets to a one game affair and were a one-hit wonder... Weeks and months later would prove me oh so wrong...
But your chants proved infectious... Your calls (Hey buddy... Sit down!) (We Love Shannon... We Love Shannon...) energized a normally lethargic crowd... Before this season I thought that games at the Pirates were dull, uninteresting... There would be a few loud mouths like myself but there was no common force that would drive the crowd...
And so I took to watching you guys... As the games went by you stayed up in V, your antics continued, and your chants to get the crowd involved also continued in earnest... I have to admit I was a budding SVRA fan...
I don't remember when it was, but somewhere in the last quarter of the regular season I talked with Matt (your head honcho with the long, black hair) and sparked a good conversation... I invited him down to my area for the pregame...
And from that humble beginning we (myself, my kid, Chris, and Kerri) would pound and chant from below, all the while keeping in tune with you guys... We pounded and clapped for everything you did, enthusiastic to keep pace with a group of guys who did their damnest night in and night out to keep the fans going...
Kurt Angle...
I don't think I really got to know you guys until the Kurt Angle era at the game started... I remember doing my first walk up the stairs to see you guys, and I talked about chanting "You Suck" when the song got played... It took a little bit from three different sides but soon it became a part that people actually did talk about...
First, I can chant "you suck" all I want but without a few others I'm just a loudmouth. Few people in attendance night in and night out see the WWE, and even fewer know about Kurt Angle's intro music and it's own atmosphere...
Second, I think the CCCC dj saw something special when it started catching on, so he continued to play it more and more...
And third, once you guys got into it the crowd was following too! We rang it out loud and proud through the end of the regular season, we chanted down the P-Bears with amazing enthusiams, and we drove Jim Shoenfeld to the point of insanity with the song...
For a while I actually gauged how good a game was by the number of times the song got played... To know that this chant got the fans on their feet, got us pumped, and made the opponents insane was awesome!
I think that song, that one act of combined enthusiasm, brought us to a full understanding of each other...
After that it was almost a pre-game ritual to talk during the warmups... I don't recognize you yet by screen name, your pictures help, but I'll learn who each and every one of you is in time... You guys came down to section T with your signs, your voices, and your enthusiam and a force to be reckoned with was made down by the boards...
But the playoffs was cut tragically short (a lot shorter than I wanted it) but I have to admit it was all of YOU guys that made it such a great season. You showed that a group of fans can make a difference... I don't care what other groups say (some of you know which ones I mean
), you guys made the Civic Center and sections S through X the place to be during the second half of the season...
How many fan groups can honestly say that they were sponsored by a company? I know the PPPBC can't even say that... How many groups receive the full backing of the team? Of guys in Greg's shoes and position? You guys have gotten great kudos in the paper, where people will say that you gave the game a great atmosphere... You guys even created a chant that, hopefully in time, can rival the B-E-A-R-S chant of Hershey...
That is a tip of the cap to what you guys have done this season...
When I first posted here I said I was a fan. That's not a comment I give lightly, and I mean every letter of it when I say that I am a fan (or groupie... without the sex that is lol) of the SVRA...
During this offseason I look forward to keeping in touch with you guys, and cannot wait for the 2006/2007 to start so I can feel that wonderful feeling of enjoying not just the hockey of a game but the atmosphere that you guys create.
Andrew
Lifelong Portland Pirates fan and Lifelong SVRA fan
), you guys made the Civic Center and sections S through X the place to be during the second half of the season...
