Last weekend, I was fortunate enough (or unfortunate enough, if you’re a UCLA fan) to attend the UCLA football team’s 35-7 drubbing at the hands of the California Golden Bears. As the game proceeded to get less and less interesting, I began to take note of my surroundings and compare the atmosphere at Cal’s Memorial Stadium to that of the Rose Bowl.
There were multiple similarities, such as identical fight songs, but my attention began to center around one thing that both schools share: Yell crews.
I’m not a fan of yell crews in student sections. It’s not that I have anything against the UCLA Yell Crew. I think the members do their job well. And by no means am I trying to knock their enthusiasm or fandom. At every game I’ve been to, they’re very much keyed into the action and want to make sure the rest of the student section is as well. It’s the abstract idea of a yell crew that I have a problem with.
The one thing that makes a good crowd great is spontaneity, and yell crews obliterate any chance for a student section to cheer on the home team on its own terms. Some of the greatest fan moments in sports have occurred because one genius fan came up with something on his or her own. Just search “Speedo Guy” on Youtube.
God bless Geoff Strand. His “man, woman and child” bit cracks me up every time, but there’s something not quite right about him demanding that I say “defense” when he counts to three. A celebratory 8-clap should occur within the flow of the game when excitement is at its peak, not when someone comes on the loud speaker and says to. (By the way, someone should really establish a set speed for 8-claps. This goes against my spontaneity argument, but those in favor of a giant metronome the size of Rick Neuheisel’s passion bucket say “I.”)
This isn’t to say that the UCLA student section, or the Cal student section for that matter, shouldn’t have some leadership and direction. But it should come from within the student section. This unofficial “leader” should be appointed by the students themselves, and it should be apparent who it is. As it currently stands, the UCLA Yell Crew members are chosen through an audition process run by the UCLA Spirit Squad. The students leading the charge ought to be the biggest fans of the respective teams, not someone who can impress at an audition.
Part of the issue, as far as UCLA is concerned, can be parsed out in the separation of power that exists in the UCLA student section. You’ve got The Den, Rally Committee and Yell Crew. Each has its own way of doing things, and they don’t seem to be collaborating as much as they could.
The Den is comprised of the school’s biggest fans, while Rally Committee is an organization that is a bit more administrative and historic. There’s a delicate balance of collectively and individuality that every crowd tries to achieve and UCLA’s student section has gone too far to the collective side. The student section is good right now, but it has the resources, and certainly the numbers, to be great.
Yell crews everywhere ruin originality in crowds. Let’s be honest, the UCLA Yell Crew’s got the “Bruin spell-out”, “defense” and “go Bruins.” UCLA students take those as gospel and aren’t continually inspired to think of fresh cheers.
If you got into UCLA, there’s a good chance that you’ve got at least a hint of creativity, but it goes unused if you’re a UCLA football fan.
If you have “Speedo Guy” on loop, e-mail Strong at sstrong@media.ucla.edu.