Roaming The Rinks

You know what the best thing about college hockey is?  The atmosphere at so many of the arenas the teams call home.  Rowdy student sections, organized heckles, and diehard fans who support their teams to the end make a night at a NCAA game about more than just the action on the ice.  One such place that must be hard for opponents to play in is the Frank Ritter Memorial Arena on the campus of Rochester Institute of Technology.  Sure there are plenty of schools with organized cheering sections and healthy crowds, but RIT's Corner Crew takes things up a notch.  From cheers as warmups are about to start, to the mastery of the word "Suck" the orange and black clad corner crew dishes out plenty of support to their Tiger hockey team, and plenty of punishment to opposing players.  They do all this at a high volume in a small barn that crams about 2100 hockey fans into its confines each game.  I don't usually take video when going to games, but the Corner Crew is part of the excitement at an RIT contest, so I had to switch the camera to a different mode to capture the fun.

                                          

You don't find an atmosphere like this at your average minor league game.  Only a college hockey crowd can provide such fun times, win or lose.  There was no pep band on hand for the New Year's Day game against Merrimack, but the Corner Crew was still out in full force, acting as a sixth skater for the Tigers, and cheering the team to the end despite a tough loss.   Their rousing renditions of both the Canadian and U.S. National Anthems as sung by the Crew, as well as their timely chants all just seem to make Ritter Arena the place to be.  Catch a game there, or else as the Corner Crew would say "You Suck."