'There's no fans compared to ours': The power of passion inside McGuirk Arena
A young fan celebrates a Central Michigan comeback by waving a t-shirt in the fourth quarter against Eastern Michigan March 7 at McGuirk Arena..
When Jewel Cotton appears on the big screen inside McGuirk Arena, fans know its game time.
Fans know to find their seat by the time Cotton begins her monologue, the focus of a pregame hype video designed to fire up the crowd. The video is serious, Cotton never breaking her intense gaze at the camera as she delivers words that evoke goosebumps.
She means business, as does this edition of the Chippewa women’s basketball team.
“Now let’s set the record straight,” she opens each time.
Throughout the season, the video has added new highlights and clips but her message has stayed the same. That is, until Saturday when McGuirk Arena was no longer the home of back-to-back-to-back Mid-American Conference champions.
It is now the home of “back-to-back-to-back-to-back” conference champions and when fans heard this phrase, first debuted on Saturday, the feeling in the building began to teeter on the brink of explosion. The unexpectedness of this new wrinkle enough to set ablaze a fan base already so fired up.
But there’s another line in that video that more accurately sums up the Chippewas’ home base.
“Where 5,000 sounds like 50,000,” Cotton says in the video.
And she’s not wrong.
According to the final statistics, McGuirk Arena sheltered 2,405 fans for Saturday’s win over Eastern Michigan. Tickets were discounted in an effort to fill up the gym in honor of the Chippewas’ two seniors – forwards Gabi Bird and MacKenna Kelly. Both were honored in a pregame ceremony, walking to half court amongst standing ovations.
Between the senior day ceremonies, an updated pregame video and the typical booming starting line up introductions, accompanied by the typical plume of fog hanging above the Chippewa bench leading into tipoff, the fans inside McGuirk Arena were ready to rock.
When junior forward Kyra Bussell hit back-to-back jumpers to give the Chippewas an early lead, the fans erupted. Any communication would have to be intrapersonal, the environment was too loud to have a conversation.
Nobody who supports the Chippewa women would have it any other way.
“I think you don’t realize how amazing it is until you go to other gyms,” Kelly said following the game. “You can feel it when you’re in it, but when you go to other gyms, there’s no fans compared to ours.”
The Eagles would quickly put a pin in that excitement, outscoring Central Michigan 29-9 in the second quarter to take a 14-point lead into halftime. Despite the struggles of the Chippewas, namely the 15-percent clip from 3-point range, nobody flooded the exits. Nobody gave up.
Because the fans know the impact they have on this program.
Each Monday, the coaching staff meets with a group of locals inside the back room of a local diner. The gathering, called “Coffee Chalk Talk,” draws a significant group of fans who come prepared with questions. The coaching staff brings presentations and the locals bring their note pads or phones, jotting down things to remember about each upcoming opponent.
These same fans are the ones who were key to the Chippewas’ second-half rally, igniting the emotion displayed from players like Micaela Kelly, who finished with a triple-double, and Maddy Watters, who rebounded from a temporary benching in the first half to hit three third-quarter 3-pointers.
The players play the game on the court, but the fans keep the energy off of it. Fans kick bleachers in key moments, trying to make as much noise as possible to support their team. On Saturday, the environment made all the difference.
As the Eagles struggled to stay in sync late in the game, thanks in part to the fan’s decibel level growing astronomically with every possession, the Chippewas continued to send fans into a frenzy.
Freshman guard Molly Davis, a player whose potential excites everyone in the building, hit a pair of dagger triples late in the fourth, the second of which followed by an easy backpedal down the court amidst the kicking and screaming of the fans.
Davis said nothing – she didn’t have to. The fans made the noise for her.
After the victory was secured, moving the Chippewas to 13-1 on that floor this season, both seniors took the microphone and issued thank yous to various people throughout the crowd. Both thanked the 6th-Man Band, friends and family and this raucous fan base that has supported them so avidly throughout their time in the Chippewa Maroon and Gold.
It was Kelly who, in her post-game speech, said that the opposing crowds within the conference were one-tenth of the crowd on hand at McGuirk. She reiterated her point in the postgame presser.
“When you’re in it and things are going, I don’t know, it’s almost indescribable,” she said. “You can hear it when you’re in the gym, you can feel it.”
Coach Heather Oesterle wanted to sell out the gym for her seniors. She wanted to send off the people who had worked so hard for her team in a way that would be fitting given their contributions. After all, these two had cut down the nets to celebrate conference championships in each of their four seasons.
But on, March 7, 2020, there was no sellout needed.
Because 2,405 sounded like 50,000.
