Oliver Ames is not treating their students with the respect they deserve. Okay, that is a little dramatic, but our fan section is in jeopardy. We are now being restricted in what we can say while we go to every other school and they are saying the things that we want to say. I will tackle some of the banned thing in this list and explain how we should be able to say it. People have to realize what is happening is not disrespectful or harmful, it is meant to get into the opposing player’s head and help our team get that W.
One of the biggest thing’s, the only chant that was specifically written on the banned list, “Sit Down, Shut Up.” It is the pinnacle of chants. CJ Deveau, a runner of the Oliver Ames’ fan section twitter account believes “it does not allow our fan section to be as strong against the other team” and “It takes away pointless things from our fan section.” When we say sit down, shut up, it is directed towards the other fan section as we believe what they are saying have no significant meaning. This is not disrespectful, it is literally just basically saying that what the opposing fan section is saying does not matter because our team is better. It is just an easier chant to say “Sit Down, Shut up.”
Another banned thing was talking to the players. In some sense, I get this, but overall I really don’t. Have you ever been to a college or pro game? People are trying to get into the player’s head and it works. That is what high school fan sections are for. We are trying to get the player’s focus not on the game but on us. It is a tactic, and it is not disrespectful. Commenting on someone’s hair does not hurt their feelings, they are just now focused on us, and not the game. It is a beautiful thing.
The last thing I want to discus, is the ban on talking to the refs. Let’s face it. High school refs are terrible. It feels like they don’t know what is going on in the game at all and blow the whistle just to blow the whistle. That is why our fan section needs to call them out. We always address them with “Sir.” We start with respect. And then we rip them apart for either calling or not calling an obvious call. “That was gross” or “What are you doing, I heard the slap from here!” It’s just to let the refs know that we are seeing calls and they have a job to do and they need to do better. It is part of the game. Let the boys play.
The fan section is amazing thing at Oliver Ames, and trying to restrict it just makes us want to chant what was banned more. The runners of the fan account had to talk to our administrators for this, we do not want to back down. I will keep calling out refs, I will keep trying to get into player’s heads, and I will keep screaming “Sit down, Shut up.” Because it is my right and my duty as a member of the fan section.