Hunting for Spirit

By Emily Entress

Bronco Week kicked off on Tuesday as the start of a week of school spirit, which has been showcased across the university.

According to sophomore Matt Mosier, a member of the Activities Programming Board in charge of Bronco Week, a number of different university groups have worked together to sponsor events and activities around campus to boost school spirit.

"We'd like to think of it sort of as a homecoming week," said Mosier.

The week is centered around the Santa Clara Men's Basketball team's game against Gonzaga, happening tonight.

"Obviously there's a sense of heightened school spirit around the game," said Mosier, "but ultimately we'd like to have it moved to the beginning of the year so incoming students can see what we're all about."

The week began with an earsplitting "Ra, Ra, Ra" on Tuesday night in the Locatelli Center at the inaugural Bronco Idol, which set the energetic tone for the week by encouraging students to share their personal Bronco spirit with their own rendition of the fight song.

"This is the first year we're doing this, and Bronco Idol is really a great way to honor the tradition of our school spirit and specifically the Santa Clara University fight song," said Kevin Oliver, a sophomore who acted as MC for the event, which was sponsored by the Alumni Office.

A panel of alumni judges evaluated the seven teams on their knowledge of the fight song's lyrics as well as their enthusiasm during their performance. Among the teams were representatives from the Pep Band, Activities Programming Board, Associated Student Government and the Alumni Office, but there were also a few brave individuals such as Bronco Brew, who tried to re-mix things up, and Matthew Wagner, whose a cappella solo brought him the second prize of $50 to the Santa Clara bookstore.

The grand prize of, however, was awarded to Team Orientation Leader, consisting of Ryan Wells and Jen Dyckman, who wooed the judges with their enthusiastic and classic rendition of the fight song.

"One thing I really loved about our version of the song is that finally, once we were all done, everyone was clapping with us and we had the entire group going for the fight song," commented Dyckman, a member of Ruff Riders who helped set up the event.

Bronco Idol was not, however, the first event of the week-long Bronco Week Celebration. On Tuesday afternoon APB sponsored Dog Day in the Graham quad. There were about half a dozen dogs, brought in by various resident directors and ministers, and dozens of students had the opportunity to play with the dogs in a small enclosure.

"We just wrapped up Dog Day, which had great attendance and really got everyone riled up for the week," said Stephanie Lucas, an executive member of APB.

Last night there was a scavenger hunt that started in Benson. The winning team received a Bronco Week shirt signed by soccer legend and Santa Clara Alumni Brandi Chastain.

The Bronco Week celebration is far from over. Tonight is the Gonzaga game, and to celebrate the Ruff Riders are hiding t-shirts around the campus. Friday will be the Dormal Formal, held by Communitas in the California Mission Room. The week will be closing out with a celebratory tailgate Saturday at noon before the men's basketball team faces off against Portland.

Contact Emily Entress at eentress@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4546.