Laker Spirit Club did a good job on Saturday.

That’s right, I said it. Go back and reread it if you have to.

For the women’s hockey game, where Mercyhurst trounced Boston University 4-1, there was a packed crowd, and for at least two periods, they were loud. I loved it.

LSC and I have had our differences. The seemingly mysterious faceless organization that imparted to us, without qualification, that indeed they were our spirit, hadn’t been able to get our fans to get loud all season long, and rubbed me the wrong way with their Blackout promotion. That prompted me to write a diatribe denouncing the introduction of black into our color scheme, for which I got called out a few weeks later, and a blood feud ensued.

Or at least that’s probably how it looked from the Merciad’s perspective.

But, the squeaky wheel gets the grease sometimes, and I had a summit meeting with Michelle Tatavosian, the head of LSC, and she even took notes at my suggestions. She’s done a really good job since she took over sometime midseason, and her dedication to righting the wrongs of our fan-dom (or lack thereof) has not gone unnoticed.

Anyways, at Saturday’s game, where NCAA regulations had everyone tied down into so many ridiculous fashions (I love how we, on the radio, were forced to call ourselves WMCE rather than JazzFM, and how we had to play ads for Coke Zero and CBS twice a period. I’m glad the NCAA isn’t profiting off of student-athletes, you know, the way they force student-athletes not to profit off of student-athletes.) Noise makers were not allowed, and so pennants were handed out. Considering time needed to make these things and relative costs, it was a pretty good giveaway.

The barn was packed. Sure, Boston fans kicked us out of our own student section, but there were at least two sections of adult fans, and a full student section, complete with shirtless guys who spelled out GO LAKERS on their chests. I was impressed.

At first, it was a bit quiet. While my microphone was disabled while waiting to do one of the NCAA commercials, I decided to run down to the student section and pump them up. It worked. We scored before I could even get back to the booth.

Add in a first intermission pep-talk and chastising Louie the Laker for not doing more, the crowd had a very loud and downright awesome second period. Cheers were constant, yet done appropriately. Those eight guys did a bang-up job leading, and I thank them for it.
The crowd was deafening at the end, and I couldn’t have been more pleased.

I like to think that the Atlantic Hockey-mandated $5 student ticket price deterred fans from the Men’s game, despite the school buying 200 tickets (which is also a great touch, by the way), but it was decent.

It was a good start, and I hope that next year, those people become the leaders we’ve been lacking, and they get cheers and chants going all next season. After all, I’m not going to be there next year to chastise the lot of you.

And so, I close with this, a quote from “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae, which is also written in the locker room of the legendary Montreal Canadiens:

“To you from falling hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high.”