UMKC Grade School Game

sealhall74 · Tue Nov 25, 2014 9:21 am

I went to one of these games at Florida State a few years back and learned one thing there. Kids can be extremely loud but it's a different kind of loud than I was used to. However, after all was said and done, if you asked any of them what they enjoyed most, it was probably the food from the concession stand.

I am going to get in a quick workout and dip in the whirlpool before coming back to watch this one.

Tue Nov 25, 2014 9:32 am

I'll be at the game this morning too. My daughter is in one of the grade schools that will be at the game. She's got food allergies, so I'm taking her lunch (the athletics department is providing subway for all the kids) and joining her for the game. Should be fun. I don't think I've ever been to a Leatherneck basketball game when I wasn't playing in the pep band.

basfan445 · Tue Nov 25, 2014 10:03 am

That's really cool the athletic department is providing food for the kids.

Tue Nov 25, 2014 10:41 am

: ImageUploadedByTapatalk1416933601.284592.jpg (171.19 KiB) Viewed 8069 times

Not sure if that worked, I'll post a better photo later, but I don't think I've ever seen a larger or more energetic crowd at a women's home basketball game before. These kids are nuts (in a good way).

sealhall74 · Tue Nov 25, 2014 11:33 am

Funny the way these kids count down the shot clock when KC has the ball. They are much too honest and have a lot to learn.

Tue Nov 25, 2014 11:40 am

Hehe, yea. Although on the flip side, it's easy to get a cheer started with them.

sealhall74 · Tue Nov 25, 2014 12:03 pm

If Ashley had a 10-12 foot post-up fade away to go with her power inside game, she would be All-World.

Tue Nov 25, 2014 12:22 pm

sealhall74 wrote:If Ashley had a 10-12 foot post-up fade away to go with her power inside game, she would be All-World.

And that's why I leave the basketball commentary to you guys....I understood like 1/4 of what you just said.

sealhall74 · Tue Nov 25, 2014 1:00 pm

Good bounce-back performance. Tough one on this coming Saturday. The North Dakota Fighting "Who" are coming to Macomb.

Tue Nov 25, 2014 1:57 pm

Back from the game. Was a lot of fun and the Leathernecks came away with a pretty big victory.

Here's a shot from where I was sitting...pretty much the entire lower section on both sides were packed. There were a few people on the ends once the game got started too.

[imgur]https://i.imgur.com/tAZW3HQ.jpg[/imgur]

Including Coach Nielson and family and/or friends:

[imgur]https://i.imgur.com/lb6HC9e.jpg[/imgur]

I shot a short video of a bit of the game, mostly to show the crowd a bit more:

[youtube][/youtube]

Looks like attendance was 1,443 and probably 1000-1200 were grade school students. ~600 from the local public schools, ~100 from St. Paul Catholic school, and a couple hundred each from some of the other schools in the county. According to the box score, that's a record for a women's game at Western Hall, which is awesome. They obviously weren't all paying attendees, but just to have that many people there felt great. The energy was much different than a regular game...a higher level of constant noise, but I'd much rather have that than a nearly empty gym with maybe 100 people scattered around. You could really tell that the team was feeding off of the energy of the kids at times, and if they continue to do this (which I think they definitely should every year during a "break" game) then I think this will do a lot towards "training" the next generation of Leatherneck fans.