The moose in the middle

For some, Wednesday’s contest between Duke and North Carolina at Cameron Indoor Stadium is a highlight of what has been an exciting college basketball season so far.

But for Duke University seniors who have faithfully slept in tents for more than a month during each of the past four years, when the final buzzer sounds, it will be the end of an era regardless of the score.

Every winter, hundreds of students pitch tents anywhere from one to two months prior to the Blue Devils’ much-anticipated match-up with the Tar Heels, jockeying for the best spots in line to snag the coveted center-court seats toward the front of the Duke students section.

Senior Kevin Shamieh, who is also a photographer for The Chronicle, has not only tented for the Duke-UNC each of his four years in Durham, but is now only the second person to have earned the honor of being Tent 1 for all four years of his undergraduate tenting career. The first, Eric Stach—a 2014 Duke graduate—also tented with Shamieh in his time as a Crazie and was proud to see the tradition passed down.

“Kevin is a friend, so I’m happy for him,” Stach said. “Over the years in Cameron there have been Crazies who have a “thing,” such as Viking Hat Guy and Mullet Man. So it’s pretty cool see the Moose Hat become a thing over the last few years. It’s a little piece of Cameron lore now.”

The connection between Stach and Shamieh goes deeper than spending a couple months together in a tent, though.

The pair are a part of what can be referred to as the nine-year crew. The crew consists of numerous groups, all of whom are connected by the fact that there is at least one person in the current year’s No. 1 tent that was also in the previous year’s Tent 1.

“It’s special because it allows Crazies from different generations to connect and share stories from their time as a Duke student,” Stach said. “For example, a few weeks ago, I spoke on the phone with the guy who was Tent 1 back in 2007 and we just talked basketball, our favorite games in Cameron and what K-ville was like during our time.”

But Shamieh’s passion for Duke basketball went undiscovered for the first 18 years of his life, as he never envisioned himself covered in paint and briefly popping up on ESPN’s SportsCenter following a good number of the Blue Devils’ home games.

He was far from a Duke fan when growing up in Wippany, N.J., and only knew about the program after seeing Jon Scheyer on television and remembering his face. In fact, the first time he watched a Duke-UNC game on television was in 2010, the year before the left the Garden State to attend Duke.

Fast forward four years and Shamieh’s dedication has extended beyond spending countless nights in Krzyzewskiville during Mother Nature’s harshest months of the year. His love for Duke basketball has transformed him into one of the most avid Blue Devil fans amongst the student population.

“Freshman year I went to [games of every sport],” Shamieh said. “I think I was overcompensating for not being a Duke fan [prior to college]. Since then it has been all of the men’s games, some of the women’s games and all football games. Try to go to as many road football games as I can too.”

Avid fans of Duke athletics may recognize Shamieh for his unique headwear that he wears to every football and basketball game. Instead of a ball cap, it is a moose hat that distinguishes Shamieh from his peers.

Whether it was during 2013’s Duke-Navy football game, when Shamieh and his hat stood out in a barren student section during Fall Break, or in a packed student section at Cameron Indoor Stadium during almost any given basketball game, the moose hat is sure to make an appearance.

The hat is not related to any kind of superstition—it is just something for his parents to look out for during athletic events and spot him on the big screen.

“It was a gift I got my sophomore year, pretty early in the [basketball] season,” he said. “The idea was to make it easier for my parents to see me on television. It worked, so I have stuck with it. Only for televised games usually, even though it has become a mainstay.”

For the fourth straight year, it is very likely Shamieh’s tan moose hat will stand out in a sea of blue and white in the heart of the Cameron Crazies’ student section Wednesday. He is already thinking of how to taunt and poke fun at North Carolina’s top players.

“No one who I am really gunning for,” Shamieh said. “You always have to go after the best guys, so you know Marcus Page is going to be a target, Kennedy Meeks is going to definitely be on the receiving end of some stuff, especially about his weight loss.”

The game will be quite nostalgic for Shamieh, who will be graduating in May with degrees in Math and History. He plans to just try and remember everything he can, right down to the bench-burning bonfire on the Main Quad should the Blue Devils emerge victorious.

And, as Stach has been sure to remind him, the tenting process is about much more than the couple of hours spent inside Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“I guess if I had to sum up everything it’s this: Something I’ve always said is that the Carolina game is just one night,” Stach said. “Two hours and that’s it. But the relationships that you form and the memories you make will last forever. There’s no substitute for someone who’s willing to sleep out on a sidewalk in 30 degree weather with you for a basketball game.”

With this optimism comes the possibility of Shamieh following this year’s team outside the confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium and possibly all the way to the Final Four in Indianapolis this April. There are no concrete plans at this time, but one last hurrah for arguably one of the most avid student fans at Duke isn’t out of the question.

“If I find myself in that position, then absolutely I would love to be there,” Shamieh said.

Nick Martin contributed reporting.