Where Have You Gone CIA? ASUCI and Eater Nation Need to Step It Up
David Gao | Jan 05, 2010 | Comments 12
At traditional athletic powerhouse universities, refraining from standing or participating in student section antics is simply not an option. The inherent tendency to be rowdy, crazy and intimidating to the visiting team becomes a contagious atmosphere because people see everyone else embarrassing themselves and lose that “too cool for this” attitude, too. At UC Irvine, partly due to our usually less than dominating status as a team, the constant standing and heckling does not exist. However, in years past, the Completely Insane Anteaters student fan group, otherwise known as CIA, at least provided one section of aforementioned standing and heckling. This year, the ASUCI-based Eater Nation has largely failed at doing anything but give away free things at the tailgate.
Last year, ASUCI decided to boost attendance and school spirit by creating Eater Nation, heavily advertising blackout nights and creating numerous tailgates. This year, they extended the student section to include the entire side across from the players benches, increased from just a few sections before. There is also a nifty new student entrance that leads directly to the floor level.
These changes have worked out well enough, and last year the Bren did draw 4,000+ for the Oregon game and a reported record student turnout for the “blackout” night versus Cal State Northridge. However, Eater Nation came at the expense of the CIA, which was vital for in-game rousing and cheer leading. The completely student run club, in a one-sided decision, had its funding cut and its responsibilities replaced by ASUCI.
This year, with most of the old CIA leaders graduated, games have been dreadfully lackluster in spirit leading. Eater Nation apparently noticed this and created “Peter’s Leaders,” which featured tryouts announced on a Facebook event. Unfortunately, thus far any leading has been nonexistent. New fans are not getting down the basic U… C… I… fight! U-C-I-ZOT-FIGHT-FIGHT-FIGHT chant, and even worse, people are still clapping and cheering sloppily after made free throws. The raised hand “Zot Zot Zot” pump is UCI’s version of Texas’ hook ‘em horns or Duke’s whoosh. Unity after free throws is an important tradition in college basketball, and it just sounds cool. At the beginning of the season, no one even knew to line up along the sidelines to high five the players running back into the locker room after a win. These CIA traditions were a nice touch of moral support for the players, and things seem lackluster without them. Peter’s Leaders’ last chance to get it together is the start of conference play. The Bren needs people who know when to tell people to stand, when to get pumped, while managing witty disses and entertaining jeers.
While on the topic of cheers and student section antics, The Payoff Pitch has a few more suggestions.
Let’s cut out the “UC REJECTS” and “If you can’t go to college go to state” chants. (For those freshmen who have not yet heard this chant, it goes something like this: “If you can’t go to college go to state, if you can’t go to college go to state. Ifyoucan’tgotocollegeandyoureallyreallySUCK! if you can’t go to college go to state.” This goes to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.”) They are not only inane, but uncreative. The latter chant/song cannot even be understood from far distances. Besides, it is not like the players themselves were rejected by UC’s. I am sure most of them chose to go to the CSU’s over schools like UCI. I’d rather create chants boosting our own team. Let us chant the names of our own players that are on fire. This has only happened once in my memory, but I could feel the positive energy pushing the team on.
In terms of deterring the other team, the free throw line is our time to shine. Instead of dully roaring, the crowd should stay in absolute silence before spontaneously bursting into piercingly obnoxious noises. This would undoubtedly distract the shooters, especially combined with the brilliant moving neon dot posters that the Anteater band so brilliantly sports.
Of course, this column is largely a moot point if you all, the UCI student body, do not attend the next UC Irvine men’s basketball game. Yes, this can even mean driving down to Long Beach State on Saturday, the 9th, to support our ’Eaters on the road. Go beyond going to the games just for the free stuff and leaving at halftime. Remind the folks in ASUCI and Eater Nation that artificially inflated attendance numbers are not necessarily the answer to higher school spirit. In-game cheers and crowd participation is just as important, if not more crucial for the unity of the student body and the benefit of our basketball team.
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When I have more time I think I’ll write about all this. But I’ll list a few quickly. 1.Coach PD needs to go. He has only gotten us to 1 Big West conference final I believe in almost his entire career at UCI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Douglass So he hasn’t produced much for students to want to go to a UCI bball game but that’s not 100% his fault
2. This is a huge problem: Students keep telling each other “what’s the point of going to the game. we suck, we’re gonna lose.” This is a huge disease on campus. I remember trying to get people in the dorms, friends, everyone who was remotely interested in UCI or sports to go. 90% said that diseased statements. In CIA we were trying to fight that but it’s very hard.
I have other problems with what’s wrong with us. But I will mention that Eater Nation is basically trying to be some revamped CIA and it’s just terrible. The black shirts were the worst idea.
CIA is gone for now b/c students just don’t want to do it. It’s not too much work.
One more thing before I leave: Students at games feel embarrassed to make loud noises, cheer, move around, etc Students need to get rid of this stupid emotion when at a game. Seriously when I went to the games it was so fun to cheer w/ my CIA homies and all the students. I was running across the floor, making noises. People just need to bring out a little passion.
David can we write an editorial or anything for the New U? I think I’d be down to say something.
passionate writing. good stuff
ZOT ZOT ZOT
More students need to drink before the games. then the games will be fun. stupid boring freshmen.
The demise of CIA and the emergence of Eater Nation (which is a ridiculous name for a student section, by the way) was not, from my understanding, the works of ASUCI. From what I know, and from what I experienced while a CIA Leader, it was the UCI Sports Marketing department that led the change. In a year that they had said they wanted CIA to be more student-run, Sports Marketing took more control than they previously had (CIA’s funding came from Sports Marketing, I believe) and forced the name change and the new t-shirts which were god-awful ridiculous. Black shirts, really? The reason for that change was this: “It’s more threatening/fashionable.” It’s a student section! It’s supposed to be loud and obnoxious, not fashionable. But I digress. Under increased control by Sports Marketing, the organization that was CIA really became nothing more than their and, partly, ASUCI’s bitches. At Shocktoberfest/Midnight Magic, we were stuck outside at the event’s (an ASUCI event, I might add) information booth while ASUCI members got to go inside and see the basketball part of the event (the part that CIA should have been inside for). There are other instances, but that was a major one. They were very overbearing and, because of Sports Marketing, I stopped finding the games to be fun about halfway through the season.
As “graduated CIA member” said, we were restricted in what we were allowed to yell at other players/teams. This kind of goes along with what you, David Gao, said with the negative cheers. Now, I’m sorry, but compared to student sections at big name schools, we are downright TAME. I mean Barney tame. Sure, the students need to get more creative, but negative cheers come with the territory of being a student section. It happens at Long Beach State, UCLA, North Carolina, and Duke, among others. Duke had a good one a few years ago in a game against Florida State. There was a report released a few days before that game about the dismal academic performance of some Florida State basketball players, and so some Duke students showed up in cap-and-gown holding signs saying, “Florida State Basketball: Fear the Classroom!”. And the negative chants and yelling at individual players could be very beneficial to the home team. At several games in the 3 years I spent as a CIA Leader, we got in the heads of several players and it did affect their game. This is Division 1 basketball. They should expect it. Besides, it’s all in good fun. It’s all over-the-top (e.g. “You have herpes!”) and not to be taken seriously.
Anyway, back to the demise of CIA. Sports Marketing made it so NOBODY who was a CIA Leader at the end of the year wanted to be a CIA Leader. There are current undergraduate students this year who were CIA Leaders last year but just didn’t want to do it any more, and a large portion of their reasoning was Sports Marketing. We were trying to work something out with ASUCI where CIA could be under the umbrella of ASUCI as opposed to Sports Marketing, but before anything was able to really happen, an email was sent out to every student who had their ID card scanned at games saying that Eater Nation was here to stay and that they were starting anew. We were told NOTHING before that. The way we were treated by Sports Marketing led to the complete demise of CIA as none of us who could continue with it wanted to continue with it and none of us had the heart to try to bring new people in.
I agree with Tony L on pretty much all points. The games are not even that fun to go to anymore.
As an alumnus this year, I still love to go to the games, but the student section is PA-thetic. It’s a sad state of affairs to see the once fun and rowdy atmosphere completely removed. Granted, in the CIA days, the attendance was about the same, but the energy was infinitely greater. My friends and I used to heckle for the entire game. We’d run up and down the court with some of the opposing players just to get an adverse reaction. The time I knew that the fun was officially over at UCI basketball games was when we had an STD chant for every starter on the opposing team (ie: You have herpes! clap clap clap clap clap!, “player” has AIDS! “player has AIDS!”, etc.). Somebody from Athletics marketing came and told us to stop. We then went to generic diseases (ie: “you have E.D.! clap clap clap clap clap”, “player has the common cold!”, etc.) and were told to refrain from that, too.
Getting rid of the CIA was a HUGE mistake. I would like to see it brought back next year. I am a recent alum who doesn’t bother to attend games now that I’ve graduated. The lackluster atmosphere combined with the horrible Pat Douglass led teams have caused me to stay away.
Are you reading this Mike Izzi?
I never understood the “If you can’t go to college go to state” or STATE SCHOOL chants. Last time I checked all UCs are state school’s hence the name, University of California, Irvine.
Are the UCs too elitist to acknowledge they are STATE SCHOOLS too?
David’s article is spot on. I’d argue that the lack of spirit is not entirely the student’s fault. The athletic department have put themselves in this mess, namely the following:
1) Retaining Pat Douglass, who has not reached the NCAA’s in his dozen+ years. As if last night’s Cal Poly loss wasn’t enough, we shouldn’t forget previous losses to Cal State Stanislaus and the buttkicking we received from former bodybag Idaho up in Moscow a few years ago. Both games on their own are fireable offenses.
2) Crappy home scheduling (Laverne, Vanguard, and Cal State Bakersfield). Somebody explain to me how the freakin College of Charleston was able to get North Carolina to make a visit? We had Oregon and Utah last year, which were great. But we couldn’t find anybody to come here? Why not?
3) Security being too tight on who enters the Student Section (Who cares if non-students want to be loud and vocal with their peers? It’s not like the Student Section is filled to the brim each night.)
4) Parking- The price to park is almost the same as general admission!
5) In game entertainment- They used to throw out tons of Nestle Crunch. Now they throw out about 8 pieces. And the halftime entertainment with the Modern Dance Lady Gaga Gwen Stefani Kesha routine is awful. I’d rather watch the empty basketball court and hear the band play that song by Lit over and over again for those 15 minutes.
If UCI wants the students to show up and be passionate, they just need to win. That would cure everything.
Thanks for catching that, N. It has been corrected to “Completely Insane Anteaters”
FINALLY a writer on the New U has addressed UCI’s dire lack in school spirit. Its such a shame too, as our sports teams are some of the best in the nation and virtually no body on campus even recognizes that. UCI is a beautiful and academically acclaimed university and we, the STUDENT BODY needs to go out there and support our school. Thank you, thank you, thank you for finally writing this article. I hope the student body reads this and takes action. I know I will.
GO EATERS!!
CIA stands for Completely Insane Anteaters, not Crazy. At least that’s what my T-shirt says.
The student entrance is STUPID. I go to the completely empty entrance only to be told I have to go all the way around the arena to the back and then stand in line. Special indeed.
I agree with the rest of your article though.