I don’t just tent for the Carolina game. Yes, the game is usually the highlight of the tenting season, but I wouldn’t tent if I didn’t enjoy spending time bonding with 11 of my friends. But I am also a die hard fan, and as a Duke student, I really enjoy cheering for all of my fellow Blue Devils. But we want to be the center of attention, and often our self-centeredness comes at the expense of our peers.
Being a part of the greatest fanbase in the world is definitely an added bonus to being a Duke fan, but when we’re just going to games for the pictures and so we can end up on TV something is not quite right. The center of attention at games is the team—we wouldn’t be able to be crazy if we didn’t have the guys out on the court. We are at games because of the team, and we have to support them.
As students, we can’t just be fair-weather fans. We can’t heckle our talented team by shouting, “asshole!” at them when they miss a shot because they’re stressed out. I know you might’ve just tented because you wanted to get a picture of yourself in front of the burning benches, but we as tenters aren’t the only ones who’ve put in a lot of work to get to this point. Our team has devoted their entire lives to this game, so if we’re going to pretend to be fans, we should know that they deserve more support than just re-posting ”A Single Shade of Blue” and then focusing more on Obama’s presence at the game than the game itself.
At least a quarter of the student body wanted to tent, and a lot of deserving students didn’t get a chance to go to the game. Did you? Did you cheer on our team?
Audrey M. Ellis, P '19
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