BLACKSBURG, Va. — East Carolina is simulating crowd noise at practice this week to prepare for Saturday's football opener at Virginia Tech.
What the Pirates might be unprepared for is Tech fans cheering for them.
Athletics director Jim Weaver sent a letter to the Tech community Monday urging respect for opponents, part of a movement on campus that calls on fans to applaud visiting teams before games. The idea is Tech fans should support schools that supported them in the days and weeks after the April 16 massacre.
"We were shown tremendous love and support, even from the schools we love to beat," says Sean Kotz, co-producer of Hokie Nation: A Team, a Town and the Best Darned Fans in College Football, a documentary premiering Friday evening at a theater in Blacksburg.
"The sports world has grieved with us and also helped us heal," Weaver's letter says. "… I ask that you remember the kindness, generosity, and support" of opponents. The letter points out that ECU will give $100,000 to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund before the game.
"We're not rooting for them," junior Tim Glick says. "We'll cheer when they take the field, then go into Lane Stadium mode — loud and raucous as usual."
Glick is one of 2,790 who have joined a Facebook group called "Cheer visiting teams onto the field in 2007." Derek Grysko, a recent Tech graduate who got the idea to create the group from a July letter to Collegiate Times, the student newspaper, wrote: "I would love to see the little guys from ECU get the ovation we treat our guys to every game."
Not everyone agreed. "Don't boo?" wrote Darren Cunningham, another recent grad. "What next? No noise when they're on offense? That's tennis."
Cunningham has since come around: "I'll cheer when they come out. But on third down, when they come to the line, I'm going to yell and scream."
That's just what Grysko wants. "I lose my voice every game," he says.
Virginia Tech quarterback Sean Glennon supports the movement.
"ECU was one of those schools that reached out to us," he says.
"The least we can do is show them we're on their side, too.
"Once the whistle blows we're not, but before and after the game we are."
