#5 The Football Guys (2009-present)
Although these guys have only been around for a couple of years, they have helped get the football team back involved during sporting events other than the football games. They started showing up during last season and began making an impact on games through trash-talking the opposing players and sometimes the coaches. They will also occasionally take shots at the officials, but that's only saved for extreme situations where they feel the Chargers are getting screwed. Another positive feature is that they support both the men's and women's basketball teams, while most students tend to show up during the 2nd half of the women's game but in plenty of time for the men's game.
The times where these guys came through the biggest was during the last two NAIA Women's National Basketball Tournament. As most of you know, when BCU switched to semesters in 2011-12, it caused Spring Break to hit right in the middle of the National Tournament. These guys have stuck around during the past two tourneys when the Chargers have made deep runs to the Fab Four and Elite Eight.
#4 Class of 2007 seniors (2002-2007)
This particular group is very special to me because their leadership during my freshman year was a major contribution to my development as a die-hard Charger fan. These guys usually showed up just a few minutes before the men's game would start and would immediately take over the second row of the old Blue Crew section (for you younger readers, the Blue Crew was originally located behind where the Briar Cliff bench is currently located). The moment that stands out in my mind when it comes to these guys is the Saturday afternoon shown in the photo above. This was Homecoming Weekend and the Hastings Broncos were in town. Just before the game started, the guys started marching in in full body paint spelling out CHARGER (they didn't have enough guys for the S). During the 1st half of this game, one of our guys was elbowed by a Hastings player, we assumed accidentally, without a foul being called. A few minutes later, right in front of us, another BCU player was elbowed by the same guy, resulting in a broken nose. As soon as this one occurred, Anthony Dvorak (the guy wearing A in the photo) pulled out the roster sheet and found the guy's name was Scott. The rest of the game consisted of us just riding this guy with all kinds of crazy lines (although I will point out not a single curse word was uttered by the group). At the time, the movie Eurotrip was still popular, so at one pont, when Scott committed a foul, as the guys were mocking him with different lines, I just happened to the question "Hey Scott, don't you know the rules" and something clicked in all our heads and we started chanting a line from the movie "SCOTTY DOESN'T KNOW, SCOTTY DOESN'T KNOW" at him. The only thing that didn't work out for us that game (which BCU won), was the fact that the game ended with Scotty having only 4 fouls, because we were praying to give him a fond farewell when he fouled out.
#3 Tim and Mark (aka the Diehards)
These two guys (just for reference in the photo Tim's the guy in yellow and Mark's the guy in blue) have been attending Briar Cliff sporting events for many many years (way longer than me). They try to show up during all sports, but they're main time of year is basketball season. They are usually the first people not working during the game to show up at the NFC on game night (I'm usually the third) and take their familiar position right at mid-court. They also travel to road games that are close by, such as NWC, Dordt, and Midland (I'm not counting that school across town). They are also big supporters of other teams in Sioux City, especially the Bandits indoor football team.
I'm gonna be honest, ranking the top two groups was one of the toughest decisions I've had to make since I started this blog. The main factor that this came down to was a simple question: "When I look back on the best example of Charger fans, who do I think of first?". With that in mind, I have decided to place the Soccer Hooligans at #2. These guys started out as ordinary members of the Blue Crew for the first couple years that they were at BCU. However, starting with the 2008-09 season, they started to take on more of a leadership role in the Crew. Originally known simply as "Those soccer guys" to most of the fans, they got their name following a game where the officiating was, well let's just say, questionable. Following the game a certain BCU Athletic Director walked up to me after they had already left and said, "I'm counting on you to keep those soccer hooligans in line" and thus, the name was born. The following season (2010-11) they took their game to another level. It started out at the final home game before Christmas Break, when they suddenly showed up in classic Christmas sweaters, this was followed by a couple other theme nights before what is probably their most remembered theme, Throwback Night. This year marked an interesting point in this groups history, as the remaining original hooligans are graduating, so it will be interesting to see if the younger guys step it up and continue this legacy.
#1 The Rohe's Boys (2003-08 season)
And now for the Number One fan group during my time at Briar Cliff, the one, the only ROHE'S BOYS!
Although the name and the trademark yellow t-shirts didn't come around until the 2007-08 season, this group of mostly seniors spent all four years bringing the noise to the NFC, even though they only saw a winning season in that final year.
This group came together when the majority of them were assigned to the same floor during their freshmen year, and one of their fellow freshmen, Neil Rohe (for you younger Chargers that's Eric's older brother) started to see significant playing time on the varsity team. The guys had talked about doing t-shirts dedicated to Neil since that freshmen season, but had always backed away from actually doing it. Finally, in their senior season, they decided it was time to do it. With seniors Nick West and Jason Pulliam (known to the Blogger world as "Well-Spoken Token") leading the way, the group chose to have the shirts be bright yellow to make themselves stand out from the Blue Crew. After the original group received their shirts, West and Pulliam decided to include some younger fans in the group who had proven their loyalty and determination to support the Chargers, including a young sophomore who would eventually become known as the BCU Superfan. When it came to the gameday performance of the group, these guys had the full arsenal. They could get the Blue Crew to follow them on cheers, were masters at heckling opponents and getting them off their game, and were known to ride the referees whenever necessary. But when I think of the Rohe's Boys, there is one moment that stands out more than any other: It was the GPAC Semifinal round, and BCU was still on Spring Break and the dorms were not open. BCU had finished 5th in the conference and had just knocked off Dordt in the quarterfinals to set up a third showdown with "that school across town not called WIT" who were ranked #1 in the country at the time. In a move that I don't think has ever been matched, every single one of the Rohe's Boys travelled from wherever they had been spending Spring Break and showed up at Allie Gym to cheer on the Chargers. That dedication was rewarded when the Chargers upset the Chiefs by three, which led the Boys to storm the enemy's court in classic college basketball style.
I hope you've enjoyed this countdown, and I encourage you to comment below or on my Facebook page on any changes you would've made to the list, or any other stories about these groups that I may have missed.
I'm DK and that's the 411!
