Student Group Provides New Spark at Soccer Matches
September 27, 2006 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 27, 2006
By: Brandon Hughes
Before the start of this year's Red Raider soccer season, Daniel Lantrip and his friends were enjoying the World Cup and casually watching the sport they love. Then, amidst the soccer bonanza, an idea sparked.
"We decided that we probably don't have a lot of support for our team here and we ought to go out and help them out a little bit," Lantrip said. "It would be a lot of fun, too."
"We started throwing the idea around of becoming soccer hooligans."
Hooligans, they aren't, but energetic Tech soccer fans, they are.
Lantrip, a senior mechanical engineering major from Albuquerque, New Mexico, has led the start of a newly formed, student-organized group called The Gunners. If you've been to a home soccer match, you've seen The Gunners, who are always energetic and always seem to grow in numbers game by game.
Their goal is simple:
"We're just hoping to keep the spirit alive and get this thing off the ground and keep it going into next year," Lantrip said. "We're trying to start a new part of Texas Tech here."
In their short life, The Gunners have already showed signs of progress. Lantrip said they have started a group on the online communication network Facebook. They coined the group `Red Raider Revolution' and it is open for anyone who would like to join.
As much leadership as Lantrip and his friends have shown thus far with The Gunners, this new project needed a boost to get off the ground.
With the help of Laura Kamp, Marketing Specialist for Texas Tech Soccer, and the coaches of the soccer team, the campaign is off and running.
Kamp said it was a good time for this to happen because with a World Cup fresh on everyone's mind combined with the good ideas the coaches were throwing around, it seemed something special was brewing.
"The coaches came up with really good ideas about increasing attendance, especially Neil, who had seen all the stuff done in Europe," Kamp said. "He wanted to kind of model it after the way it had taken off over there."
Kamp said that before the season the coaches were looking for a group of students who liked soccer and were interested in starting a new tradition at Tech.
"I sent out a TechAnnounce asking for some rowdy fans who liked soccer to contact me and we could try to set up a group," Kamp said. "That's when Daniel called me and he brought in his friends."
Kamp said that The Gunners have really taken charge, attended every home game, and have really added to the atmosphere. Adding energy to a sport where it had been short of in years past, was something Kamp noted as being valuable. She said the guys have been successful in getting a bunch of students to follow them.
"Them, as well as the team winning, has been the greatest marketing tool this year," Kamp said.
Ryan Henderson, a civil engineering major from Edmond, Oklahoma, and a member of The Gunners, said he and his friends start talking to students at the games and then proceed to get them interested in joining their group.
"I know if we just get the word out there, and they see a game, they'll enjoy it," Henderson said. "I know I did and it has been a lot better than I initially thought it would be."
Henderson said that with the current matches away from the Hub City, The Gunners will have plenty of time to advertise and garner more participation.
Another member of The Gunners, Jordan Johnson, a senior political science major from Edmond, Oklahoma, said the group is thinking about expanding into softball games in the spring.
He said The Gunners are simply looking to go out and support programs that don't receive as much support as some of the others do.
"We really encourage people to come," Henderson said. "We're not selective and we're open to everyone."
As well as attending every home match, The Gunners said they're currently looking at becoming an active student organization. They said they're looking to do bigger and better things to help the team in any way possible. If all things go well, The Gunners said they should become an official organization this semester with Kamp being their faculty advisor.