Mon 8 Sep 2008
Posted by Meg under Sports
Sean Glennon and Tyrod Taylor
I love football season. How could I not, when my family has season tickets on the 50-yard line, twelve rows up, at the greatest college football stadium in America? That’s Lane Stadium, where the Virginia Tech Hokies play.
Two games into the season, our beloved Hokies are off to a rather sluggish start, but we’re no fairweather fans. There’s something magical about being in the stands at Lane Stadium, which is why the Hokies sell out every home football game, whether they’re playing their biggest rivals or some school no one’s ever heard of before.
Lots of schools boast great home field advantages. It’s true, there are lots of great stadiums in this country, and the Hokies aren’t the only team worth loving; they’re just my team. Maybe you feel the same way about your home team.
Whenever the Hokies have a home game, my family loads up our caravan with coolers of more food and drink than you’ll find in our house on Thanksgiving, and we head to Blacksburg a few hours before game time to tailgate. I live near the UVA football stadium in Charlottesville, and even though Cavaliers love to party, I’ve never seen nearly as many pregame revelers as you’ll find at their rival’s stadium. One tailgater who parks in our lot at Tech not only brings a full sized grill (actually a common site at a Hokie tailgate), but also sets up a big screen television to watch the pregame show while throwing back beers and tossing a football with his kids.
Inside Lane Stadium, the roar of the crowd is intoxicating. The team enters to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” and the entire crowd of 66,000+ fans is on their feet, jumping, screaming, and rooting for the home team. ESPN calls our stadium one of the scariest places for a visiting team to play. It’s not the largest crowd in the country (not by a long shot), but you’ll be hard pressed to find a louder place in America once that Metallica song starts on the PA. The game itself is great — Frank Beamer has built a program worthy of its fans — but to see why I love being in the stands, just watch this video of the team’s entrance:
You may get a better view of the action from your couch, but nothing compares to the way it feels to be one of the people shaking those stands. I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday.
> I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday.
But I can think of a better place to spend a Sunday.