The Lavaja Diaries: First Home Game

Rusty had his first home game, which meant the first game I was able to go to! I was super excited to see how his team played, how many fans would come, and how crazy the fans would be. I have heard some crazy stories about fans throwing things at players, but supposedly only a couple of teams have had that problem and they are trying to crack down on it by fining people. I got there and Costas and Panos, Dimitrius' friends, were checking people into the game. I said hi and walked in. There were three policemen who were patting down a guy who walked in before me. Panos said something to them, so I just smiled and walked through. I ran into Vickie, the team's stats girl. She asked where I was sitting and then invited me to go sit down on the court with her.

There were police all over- there were probably about 10 there. I didn't know if I should feel worried or safe, but I felt safer having them there than not there. There were more people there than I expected. The stands were definitely not full, but I would guess there were around 300 people there. The game started with a bang- literally. Right before the start of the game the rowdy section of the stands, which consisted of about 50 guys between the ages of 16-25, let off some type of firework that made a huge bang; I almost jumped out of my seat. I wasn't expecting that, but apparently it was not a surprise to others, as all the people around me starred at the court as if nothing had happened. People had made and hung signs for Lamia, which was exciting to see. It was weird not hanging any of my own signs, considering I would hang anywhere between 5-10 huge posters at the BYU games...looking back it may have bee a little overkill, but what can I say, I was (or should I say am) a dedicated cougar fan.

Lamia's avid fans wore matching scarves. Throughout the game they weren't too crazy, but they did have a big drum they would bang on and they would randomly throw receipt paper rolls down onto the opponent's side of the court, which created huge streamers. The two 10-year-old ball girls would run around and clean it up, so the game could begin again. One thing that threw me off was that the fans cheer while Lamia serves the ball and go silent while the other team serves. I am use to getting quiet for our team and then loud for the other team during serves, so I'll have to work on this. The game went well; Lamia won in 4 sets! We celebrated by going out for dinner and then headed home.