"Ball! Ball! Ball!" revisited

ChuckElias · #1 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 12:41pm

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

DrakeM · #2 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 01:02pm

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.

Brian Watson · #3 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 01:06pm

boing boing?

I must be too sheltered.

DrakeM · #4 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 01:33pm

As in the ball bouncing!? (stay with me)

boing,boing,boing,boing,boing,boing,boing,boing... .....

Brian Watson · #5 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 02:03pm

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

DrakeM · #6 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 02:12pm

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.

Mark Dexter · #7 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 03:48pm

Quote:

Originally posted by DrakeM
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.

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

BTW, my school is very

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.

Mark Padgett · #8 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 03:52pm

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).

JRutledge · #9 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 03:53pm

Quote:

Originally posted by ChuckElias

"Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball!"
Chuck

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

zebraman · #10 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 04:02pm

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

ChuckElias · #11 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 04:56pm

Quote:

Originally posted by zebraman
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.

Quote:

originally posted by JRutledge
Can I ask, what the hell is wrong with the crowd doing that?

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

zebraman · #12 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 05:14pm

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

JRutledge · #13 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 06:44pm

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

ChuckElias · #14 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 09:22pm

Quote:

Originally posted by zebraman
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 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

ChuckElias · #15 (**permalink**) Thu Jan 31, 2002, 09:27pm

Quote:

Originally posted by JRutledge
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?

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