Had a HS varsity game last night. Went early to watch the JV officials (who were, incidently, terrible :( ). In any case, the JV players for the home team do that incessant "Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball!" thing. Please excuse my Chandler Bing impersonation, but could that be any more obnoxious?

This was, you guessed it, a girls game.

Anyway, the varsity game is not as well-attended as most of the boys games at this school. And there are no cheerleaders there. So you can hear pretty much whatever is said in the stands.

First minute of the game, visiting team has the ball on offense and what do I hear? Of course! "Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball!"

From the girls? NO! From a bunch of guys in the stands!! I couldn't believe it. Well, I was not about to listen to that all night, so I immediately yelled "Knock it off!". I heard "We can't do that?" but no argument. They didn't do it again after that.

However, they did do other things that were genuinely fun (funny) throughout the rest of the games. They jumped up and did sideline "cheers" when one of the girls scored. During a time-out, they did a "wheelbarrow race" along the endline. I was glad that they decided to have fun and be supportive instead of just being obnoxious fans.

Just thought I'd share.

Chuck

Had a game the other night where the crowd did the famous,
"PASS-PASS-PASS-SHOT" cheer whenever the visiting team had
possession. I also like the "boing,boing,boing" cheer whenever the ball is dribbled.:)

boing boing?

I must be too sheltered.

As in the ball bouncing!? (stay with me);)
boing,boing,boing,boing,boing,boing,boing,boing... .....

I get the emulation of the bouncing ball, I just never heard that "cheer" before.

Well,
Us Utahn's cain't do notin else what normal high skool kids do (;)) so we got to make up them thar funny cheers.:D

Never heard either of these. The first one sounds like a mixed-up game of Duck-Duck-Goose.

BTW, my school is very :rolleyes: creative with their cheers. The two main ones:

(1) During player intros, announcer will say (for visitors): #12, John Smith, to which the students will automatically reply "sucks!"

(2) Whenever the refs get a call right, but the crowd (in their infinite rules knowledge) thinks it's wrong, out comes the 'bovine scatology' chant.

Don't get me started on my high school.

While I absolutely hate "ball, ball, ball, ball, ball" and tell any boy who says it that they only say that in girls games, I must admit there is one spectator cheer I do think is really clever.

It happens when a winning team is in a stall, like a four corners, and the opponent's fans start to cheer, "boring - boring, etc." and the winning team's fans respond with, "winning - winning, etc."

My favorite cheer when I was in HS was when an opponent was going to shoot a free throw and we would yell, "See that basket - see that ball - c'mon stupid - hit the wall."

Actually, a lot of our other cheers contained profanity (really).

Not seeing the problem.
 

Can I ask, what the hell is wrong with the crowd doing that? I bet they could not keep that up all game, and if they could, more power to them.

It is a game, isn't it?

Peace

I couldn't care less if the crowd, or even a player(s) yells, "ball, ball, ball, ball." I have more important things to worry about. Why look for trouble? Ignore it!

Z

The simple reply to both of you is that it makes the game unpleasant for me. Frankly, it pisses me off to have to listen to it. So one comment put a stop to it and made the game better for everybody.

The more complicated reply is that this group of boys had been disruptive in the JV game and my partner and I decided that we would not permit it. Maybe we were just in a "mood", but it worked and made the evening better for everybody, including the boys in question.

Chuck

Chuck,

What would you have done had the crowd just laughed off your "knock it off" statement or if that just made them worse? I'm not asking to be a smart-***, I can just think of my game situations where some of the high school kids were having a good time and being rowdy....in those cases, I think a comment like that would have really got them going.

Z

Why is it about you?
 

Chuck,

The actions of the kids is not about you. What if they were chanting a cheer, are you going to tell them to knock it off too? If this was a real problem, I think others in the stands might have made an issue out of it. Let them have fun, stop being such a prude. This is a game and kids should have the right to have some fun. I really do not think they would be able to keep it up the entire game. And if they are, more power to them. That is what home court is all about sometimes. The atmosphere on the court and off it.

If you were doing a game like at Duke University (Duke-North Carolina tonite) or a school that is always yelling, would you tell them to knock it off then? And really, what is the difference?

I think there is much bigger fish to fry.

Peace

I understand that you're asking a legitimate question, and the honest answer is that we would've tossed the kids from the gym. We talked to the site administrator between the JV and Varsity games. He confirmed that they'd been a problem and asked us to be aware of it. My partner and I decided that he would warn them and I would toss them, if it became necessary. I just decided not to wait for him to warn them.

Chuck

Re: Why is it about you?
 

No, of course I would not tell them in that situation. And the difference is about 14,960 people. In a small gym with about 40 people in it, 5 guys screaming "Ball! Ball! Ball!" makes the game less than enjoyable. So I stopped it.

And you mention that I should not be a prude and let them have fun. I did let them have fun. In my post, I told about what they did after they stopped the stupid yelling. They had a blast. They cheered for the girls and did wheelbarrow races. It was so much better after I told them to knock it off.

So I was able to discontinue obnoxious behavior and I allowed the positive supportive behavior. Is there really anything wrong with that?

Chuck

Re: Re: Why is it about you?
 

Well, you have a right to your opinion. I think you open yourself up for other problems trying to stop something like that yourself. And if you want that to stop, what else are you trying to stop them from saying? As long the players did not have a problem with it, or their actions were not personal, I personally do not have a problem. But to each his own I guess. ;)

Peace

When I was in HS way back in those hip 70's There were 2 things the fans did that I particularly liked. When we played our cross town rival, during the player introductions for the visitor, all the students would have a newspaper and they would pretend to be reading the paper when the rivals were introduced. The other thing is that all the students would turn their backs when the other team was being introduced.

Our cross-town rival would do that to us (even when we were at home). It usually prompted our fans to joke that they were just pretending - they didn't know how to read :).

YOU TAW, never heard of that place, is it in northern 'bama. yaw got basketball way up yonder. gohlly.

That seems to be the consensus around the country.
"Utah? what kind of basketball is there to ref there?"
"must not be any good"

tony, your southern is rusty. the correct way to say "northern" in southern is "nawthun". A person who comes from the north is therefore a "nawthunnuh", or more simply a "damn Yankee!" Also, there's no such word as "yaw". It's "y'all". Just trying to be helpful. :)

Chuck

Nawthunnuh sounds like something a Red Sox fan might say,
but of course such a person would never be so kind as to
merely say "damn Yankees". ;)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dan_ref

Quote:

Nawthunnuh sounds like something a Red Sox fan might say,

Hmmmmm, you may be right. Maybe the southern way to say it would be "Nah"thunnuh. That doesn't really sound right, though. I think I'll stick with my original pronunciation.

Try to hear Vivian Leigh say it in your head. I think I came pretty close. :D

Chuck

Chuck,
I knew Vivian Leigh. Vivian Leigh was a good friend of mine.
And Chuck, your are no Vivian Leigh!:D;):D

Howabout Butterfly McQueen? :eek:

Howabout howler monkeys yelling, "I don't know nothing 'bout readin' no rules!"


BTW - although I have not been in the South very much, I was in Nashville last summer for a trade show and discovered that the plural of y'all is all-y'all.

I'm not sure of the spelling, however. ;)

My chem TA is from Tennessee, and she actually writes y'all in e-mails when she sends us messages.

In the latest one, she spelled the word "yall" - no apostrophe.

My former principal at the school where I teach was a short, rotund lady of Chinese ancestry, who was born and raised in Texas...she graduated from Texas A & M - to hear "y'all" and "gig 'em" coming out of that round little face was too much - she even had the drawl! It was great!! Went over really well up here in Washington State...

The worst thing is when one of the officials in our association had a crowd of students from the winning home team chant his name. The visiting team will no longer allow this official to work any games from any sport.

I am very glad to hear that, to be honest. As is my wife! :eek:

Chuck

In a girls' JV game the other night, we had a post player who literally grunted every time the opposition put up a shot. Didn't matter where the shot came from, if the opponents put up a shot, she bellowed a Monica Seles-like grunt.

At the first quarter break, I joked to my more experienced partner that I couldn't stop giggling every time she grunted. He smiled, agreed, and went over to the coach and told her to politely ask her player to stop grunting, on the unsportsmanlike conduct angle.

Heard her grunt one more time when I was lead in the second quarter. As soon as she grunted, she blushed and said, "Sorry."