Stop throwing things

Note – I took so many pictures and video and have so much to write over the next few days about that game tonight (what a game!!!). FIRST thing’s first though. I have to get this one off my chest.

I just got home from the Cal Poly – UCSB soccer game. What a match! What an ending! I’ll be writing something about Kody Wakasa and the actual game later on.

Now, though, I guess I have something I’ve been trying to figure out how to get off my chest, and a lot of fans might not like it. Because what happened at Spanos tonight was unacceptable and I feel like I have to say something about it.

After scoring the first goal of the match, UCSB ran toward their bench, motioning to the crowd, giving them the shhh sign. It’s the same thing Nick DePuy did last season when UCSB scored and probably the same thing Cal Poly does in Santa Barbara when they’re fortunate enough to get a goal there.

As he started to turn away, UCSB freshman Geoffrey Acheampong was hit in the neck or back with what looked like a water bottle. Acheampong went down. A minute later, the first warning for not throwing things on the field was announced over the PA system.

Embarrassing scenes like this do not shed a great light on the Cal Poly student section. By Owen Main

At the time there were roughly a million corn tortillas and less than a million flour ones coating the sidelines and areas of the field near the sidelines. In the field of play. And not just in front of the Gaucho section.

I can’t really express my disappointment in any other way, so let me say a few things right here and right now. These are things I believe about sports in general that have crystalized tonight. Call it a fanpiphony (TM).

I love a big crowd. I love a big crowd that makes noise. If you’re a college kid in a crowd, being a little rowdy with your words can be really fun. But let me be really clear about this.

There is never an OK time for fans to throw anything onto the field of play during the game.

But Owen, what about in hockey when fans throw an octopus or hats on the ice after a hat trick? I used to think that might be OK. I don’t think that anymore. I’ve changed my mind. It’s never, ever all right to throw ANY object on the field of play.

What about tortillas?

First thing’s first: there were tortillas flying from everywhere at Spanos tonight. They were being thrown on the pitch, during the match, at players on both teams.

If you are a Cal Poly fan, why the hell would you be throwing tortillas? It’s not even your tradition. Shouldn’t the goal be zero tortillas on the field (giving up zero goals to UCSB)? If you were a Cal Poly fan with tortillas at the game on Saturday night, I have no patience for you.

Maybe it was fun for you to throw things onto the field. I have a good time playing ring-toss at the fair, but an NCAA Big West Conference soccer match between two really good teams should not remembered for people throwing things onto the pitch.

Even with the most beefed-up security I’ve ever seen at Spanos, hundreds of morons with tasty burrito shells were too much to overcome. I don’t want to think about where those tortillas came into the stadium hidden… .

I’ve been to soccer games in crazy places you guys. I’ve attended three matches in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where I paid the equivalent of $1.50 to sit in the “sol” seats at Marathon. The depraved fans who chose to sit there included the guy with no teeth who climbed 15 feet onto a fence to hang a banner and a majority of people so poor you wouldn’t believe. These people lived and died with their soccer, sometimes quite literally, but IT NEVER EVEN CROSSED THEIR MIND TO THROW THINGS ON THE FIELD during the games I was at.

Do we need 15-foot fences now? Do we need to construct a literal Thunderdome?

Which is a nice segue to my next point. Tortillas, man. As soon as tortillas are implicitly encouraged and not explicitly discouraged, a slow-moving momentum took over. Cal Poly and UCSB has a rivalry that has grown into the best college soccer rivalry in the nation.

“Tortillas at Harder is fine,” I’m sure people thought. But that wasn’t good enough. Soon, fans started bringing them on the road, throwing them (mostly) after UCSB goals. Over the years though, tortillas have become something to bring to games to throw whenever you want.

Whatever “tradition” that used to surround tortillas no longer does. Fans throw them at-will and especially when an opposing player is near. I KNOW that there are fans who would argue with me here. “We only throw them after goals.” “We don’t throw them at players.” “There are people at our stadium whose job it is to pick them up so nobody slips on them…”

On and on.

Unfortunately, there are traditions that run their course. Tradition is especially lost at visiting stadiums, where home fans see that throwing things onto the field is something that is done and implicitly allowed over the years by the visiting team and so they feel the need to do it too.

So, why not kick it up a notch? If they’re throwing tortillas, why can’t I throw water bottles? It’s how the 18 year-old mind works.

Which brings me back to my point, and my stance on this one. It is NEVER OK to throw anything on the field or court during any sporting event unless it’s to return the ball back into play after it’s been kicked into the stands. Our logical brain thinks we can separate “rules” about it, but the only rule that is idiot-proof — and there were a lot of idiots at the game tonight — is one that doesn’t have gray area. Sorry reasonable fans, your fun tradition has gotten bigger than you can control and run its course.

I’m a huge fan of tradition. Nothing was better than hearing the entire stadium singing along with the last few verses of the National Anthem tonight. I had chills down my spine and everything that it meant to be a fan of sports was harmonious.

Until people started throwing things. I am embarrassed. I am sad. I am angry about it. You should be too. I used to think people at other Big West schools maybe had a legitimate beef about fans at just one school being allowed to throw things onto the field of play. After tonight, any thought of righteous indignation or moral high ground is gone into the atmosphere, like the water that flew out of the bottle that hit the Gaucho freshman.

Dammit you guys, there was so much great soccer played out there. I hate that I’m thinking about this right now. I have stories to write and videos to post about how Kody Wakasa was injured all year last year, about how his brother has been trolling him on Twitter during games that he needs to cut his hair and score a goal for once, and finally he did. I have stories to write about how this was as good a game of soccer I’ve seen from BOTH sides at Spanos over the last three years. Instead, this.

I’m sorry Geoffrey. Not all Cal Poly fans are idiots. Just a few. Actually, a lot more than I thought. There were a LOT of tortillas flying, and by now, you know my feelings about people who throw things onto the field at games.

And you can quote me on that.

@GauchoSoccer DUMB DUMB DUMB. STOP THROWING THINGS!!!!!!! Also MORONS AND DUMBASSES. You can quote me on that.

— fansmanship (@fansmanship) October 18, 2015