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Garnet Army goes through boot camp
Allie Pressley, 19, a freshman at USC, does pushups as she takes part in the Garnet Army Boot Camp.
Gerry Melendez/gmelendez@thestate.com
CommentsOn the whole, Darrin Horn’s actions to get South Carolina students involved have worked. But there was only so much the USC men’s basketball coach could do.
About halfway through a “boot camp” for USC students on Monday night, five fans were picked to try and score against five Gamecock players. Horn, ever the coach, grabbed his clipboard and designed a play just like he would in a real game.
Three times, his players — none shorter than 6-foot-7 — stopped the students from scoring.
“Didn’t follow the game plan,” Horn said later, shaking his head, but smiling.
The real role for the students is to become a factor in games, menacing opponents and inspiring the home team. Monday night’s event, attended by about 75 students at the Colonial Life Arena, was the latest step in those efforts.
The first step was naming the student section the “Garnet Army,” and adopting camouflage-style garnet, black and white shirts. Horn reminded the fans that his team was undefeated at home since SEC play began, coinciding with the students returning from winter break.
Horn said he believes the student section “drives the energy and the atmosphere in the arena.” One of his players, senior Zam Fredrick, said there has been a noticeable difference this season.
“The atmosphere is definitely different, and it always helps when you’ve got a lot of people behind you, backing you, crowd going crazy, jumping around, wild,” Fredrick said. “You just feed off that as a player.”
James Roper, a sophomore business major from Pendleton, has been one of the ringleaders. He and a couple of friends call themselves “the generals of the Garnet Army,” and Roper was clad in garnet suspenders at Monday’s event.
“What more do you need us to do?” Roper asked Horn during a question-and-answer period.
“Well, you don’t need to wear those suspenders,” Horn replied to laughter.
But Horn’s main answer to Roper — and his theme in general — was to continue building excitement. He said he wanted every student to make the person next to them “be embarrassed” that they’re not as excited.
Roper said the effort was “getting there,” and hoped it would spread across the arena.
“This whole thing is necessary, to be honest with you, because we do not have the most excitable fans,” Roper said. “We’re not fair-weather by any means, but we don’t stand up and cheer at all times. You see the Cameron Crazies at Duke, and they stand the entire time. They’ll be down 20, and they don’t sit down. That’s what we want here.”
Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.
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