The Time to Change Our Attitude

Why Charlotte fans need to get on board the new Forty-Niners era.

I remember my first year at Charlotte….everyone wanted Judy Rose fired. It was not a great introduction for school spirit and athletic excellence as a freshman, to say the least. But as we have all observed in the past two years since the 2017-2018 season, is a major boost in our athletic leadership and coaching which has been the roots of our new-found talents on the court and the field. 

Just to preface this, I write this as a fourth-year senior who saw the 1-11 football season and 6-23 basketball season as a freshman, saw everyone lose their heads about Judy Rose, celebrated the hiring of Mike Hill, questioned why we hired Will Healy over Mike Houston, was proven totally wrong when we hired Will Healy over Mike Houston (very wrong), stormed the field when we beat Marshall, watched us gobsmack Davidson at Halton, and now I pray we get to see the 49ers take to the field this season. I have seen this program transition into a new era of leadership which now demands excellence, from a student perspective. 

I also want to say this is NOT about the WHOLE fan base and only those who give up really easily and still cheer for Carolina or State cause “I grew up with them"

Whenever the new layout for the athletics master plan was released, 49er Twitter exploded into excitement as we got a glimpse of what Mike Hill and the school want to turn our facilities into in the next decade.  One of the top items on the list was the long-awaited stadium expansion for Jerry Richardson Stadium which currently holds an unofficial 15,000 spectators. 

You would think that everyone would be on board with these major moves, but there was a *select few who did not understand why we need to expand the stadium. While yes, I know it was only a few who disagree and it is not a major perspective by our fanbase, but this has been the mentality of some of our alumni base (and some students) for a long time.

There has been a mentality people have adopted for football that we are “just a young program” or “We are playing just to get paid by the big schools”. This is the exact mentality that a C-USA team would have normally because they aren’t some “big program”. This is also the mentality of fans who are not invested in the teams and program because they want to care, but not cheer for a 7-6 football team. 

There is a pressing issue that students have with alumni, especially at games. It is when we are told “that's not how we did it back in my day” is when students begin to not to listen to alumni and don’t want to go to games because it’s “not good enough”. We are in a new era and slowly beginning to build new traditions, this takes time! The students want the atmosphere, and once the program continues to grow and people like Coach Healy and Mike Hill continue to get students excited for home games, the students will be more on-board.

For the time being, stop judging the students for “lack of support”, it's coming and it's there, we just need to build more of that winning atmosphere students crave! 

We as a fanbase must embrace the changes that are coming to our program, it is extremely exciting and it will have many hills and valleys along the way. This is a new era which we are experiencing with athletics and with it comes new traditions. Maybe rushing the field after every win becomes a new tradition or the student section be in front of the away bench at Halton, but these changes should be embraced, along with the facilities work, as a sign of progress and the fact that Charlotte Athletics is on the rise to greater things.