A rooting section as big as the county
I got three games’ use out of the
”
Balers Sixth Man
”
T-shirt I bought from Debbie Fisher, so that made it well worth
the $10 investment.
Fisher, the mother of Baler girls’ basketball defensive whiz
Kelsey Russell and a fellow San Benito High School employee, helped
the red and white shirts spread like wildfire through the stands as
the girls made their playoff run this year.
A rooting section as big as the county
I got three games’ use out of the “Balers Sixth Man” T-shirt I bought from Debbie Fisher, so that made it well worth the $10 investment.
Fisher, the mother of Baler girls’ basketball defensive whiz Kelsey Russell and a fellow San Benito High School employee, helped the red and white shirts spread like wildfire through the stands as the girls made their playoff run this year.
The team won its second consecutive Central Coast Section last weekend at Santa Clara University’s Leavey Center, in front of a sea of red reminiscent of a college basketball cheering section.
As I sat with my family and my sons’ friends in the second row, I saw my neighbors and my classmates and my co-workers and my students and the kids I’ve coached in baseball and the Hollisterites I’ve seen at Baler football games. We were all cheering for our Balers, but as is always the case with local sports, we were representing our town.
We worked in unison that night to raise our fists triumphantly when our team stole the ball or made a three-pointer. We groaned together on every missed layup and yelled together when the refs made a bad call. Ultimately, we celebrated together when the team hoisted its trophy and acknowledged the crowd – their hometown rooting section.
I’m not surprised by the support that local sports receive, as I’ve witnessed it since I was a child and parents made the trip to watch us play a Little League Tournament of Champions game in Salinas when I was 12. Twenty-six years later, a bunch of Hollister fans, many of whom did not have a child on the team, drove to San Jose to watch my son’s team play for a state Little League championship.
When the Baler football team had its recent run of CCS title game appearances, the Baler side of the stands was always more packed than our opponents’. Travel to a mid-November away football game and there’s a good chance San Benito County fans will outnumber the home fans – even if the team isn’t having a championship season.
When the Baler baseball team was in the CCS finals a couple years ago, Hollister turned out in force at San Jose Municipal Stadium. The Baler softball team, the three-time defending section champion, likewise has a wonderful following.
And this year, as the Baler girls basketball team marched through the playoffs again, locals traveled to Milpitas High School and Santa Clara to watch their games. The great thing is that a majority of the fans aren’t parents of players.
They are fans of their town’s school, which may or may not be their alma mater. Still, when the Balers play any sport against any opponent, they can count on their community to turn out to support them.
The atmosphere at Tuesday night’s NorCal playoff game in Mattson Gym was electric. Deer Valley had a cheerleading squad that did a good job, but couldn’t out-yell the Baler cheerleaders.
Our student section featured signs and T-shirts and noisemakers and chanting and bleacher-stomping – all the components of a big-time, small-town playoff game.
On this night the Balers’ ran into a tough opponent that outlasted a late comeback effort by the locals. It was a tough way to end a second consecutive stellar season under Coach David Kaplansky’s leadership, but while fans walked away wanting more, we knew we really shouldn’t ask for more.
We live in a community that is there for its youth, whether it’s at soccer travel tournaments in San Jose or Hollister Heat and Hollister Little League games at Vet’s Park or wrestling matches or swim meets or even golf tournaments – well, maybe there aren’t cheering sections at Baler golf matches, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were.
If you wear a jersey that says Hollister or Balers or San Benito somewhere on it, you can count on being able to look to the stands and see people there to support you. I feel badly for other schools when they come to play us and they have more players than fans.
You’ll never see that for Hollister sports on any level. The Baler Chess Club would have a rooting section if it scheduled matches in Mattson Gym.
What a great place to be a fan.
