Back in August, I announced on here that I was going to revive the old Briar Cliff Fan of the Year Award. Well, the time is here and I feel that I've seen enough to crown someone as the award winner.
Before I do that I am going to talk about previous award winners from when BCU actually gave this award out, and also name guys as winners for the years between when BCU stopped giving it out and this year so that the award winner can have some idea of the exclusive club he/she is joining. So here we go with a trip down Memory Lane:
2008 BCU Fan of the Year: Dennis Klein
Call me crazy, but it only seemed right to start the Legacy part of this post with the guy who actually writes this blog...ME. I won the award in 2008 when I somehow beat out two seniors, Jason "J-Man" Pulliam and Larry Caouette, both of whom I've always said deserved the award more than me because they were my mentors and helped make me into the Superfan that I became over the years. One thing you will notice about the photo (which was taken at Homecoming if I remember right) is that there is no hardhat. That's because the hardhat came to be the following year after I had won the award.
2009 BCU Fan of the Year: Anthony "Donut" Cosentino
Donut (right with the hair) arrived at BCU the year after I did, and knowing that I was ineligible for the award in 2009, I nominated him for the award due to his costumes, his passion throughout the year in multiple sports to cheer on the Chargers, and because I saw a lot of myself in him and thought there was a little tag-team style thing forming. Well, that didn't end up working out, even though he graduated from BCU two years after he won the award, Donut basically disappeared from the sports fan scene. I never really got a clear answer as to why it happened. I know he was involved in track and field, and he probably also had some class commitments that got in the way (I know there were times when I was late to games at different times due to night classes).
Due to these events occurring, I've decided to re-issue the award with a DK Fan of the Year award for the 2008-09 school year. Ironically, the award will go to the guy who is in the photo with Donut:
2009 DK Fan of the Year: Derek "DC" Christoffel
DC was a year older than me in school (Class of 2009), and he caught the passion from the same upperclassmen that I did when it came to supporting the Charger teams with everything you had. A lot of the groups that I ran with were the same as him around campus, such as the Rohe's Boys and I always consider him one of the early members of the Soccer Hooligans as well, even though that group didn't really take off until after his graduation. He was also one of the original "Blue Crew Coordinators" and is one of the few people to hold that position that actually understood what the original purpose of the Coordinators was, which was to organize the Blue Crew's chants and stunts to make the NFC more intimidating for opposing teams that came in (although other coordinators have chosen to focus on publicity stunts like Lucky Duck Chuck and Shot From the Seat instead). Therefore he is getting the DK Fan of the Year Award for all the work he put in over those years.
2010 BCU Fan of the Year: Jason Wesselmann:
Jason (Class of 2010) was the final winner of the award before BCU decided to stop giving it out. I don't think I'm making anything up when I say that most people around BCU athletics didn't vote for him to win the award, and were shocked when it was given to him. One reason he won it was because of a decision made by the people in charge of the award. Going into that spring (that was the time of year that the award was presented), when the nominations started coming in, most of the coaches and athletes were nominating the same person for the Fan of the Year Award...DK. Since I had already won it a couple years earlier, Mariann Pesky, who was in charge of the award, didn't really want a multiple time winner because she felt that I would just keep getting the award every other year and wanted to make the award more competitive. So she met with me and explained how she felt. I understood where she was coming from and agreed to a compromise where I would be one of the nominees for the award, but the person that I had nominated would win it.
The reason I nominated J-Wess was because, although he wasn't as high profile of a fan as I was (his style was more laid-back and subtle), for the four years he was at BCU, he was always there at the games and doing what he could to support the teams. He was also consistent in showing up for some of the sports that other students didn't always attend such as baseball and track and field.
2011 DK Fan of the Year: Matt Boubel
Although most people have always said it'll be a long time before another Superfan of my caliber comes along, we came about as close as possible with this guy. A native of San Antonio, Texas; Matt came to BCU as a member of the soccer team and began to learn the ways of the Blue Crew at that time very quickly. After a waiting for about half a season for the other upperclassmen to join me and DC in the leadership role of the Crew, Matt and some of his soccer teammates got tired of the quiet student section at home games and took matters into their own hands. Combining what they had learned from the 2007-08 Crew, and adding some elements from their experiences in soccer supporters sections at US national team games, the Soccer Hooligans were born. As the years went on and their courage got stronger, the Hooligans began to add a new feature to their arsenal during games...costume themes. Matt got the ball rolling on this part unintentionally during a Blackout game during the 2009-10 season, when he wore one of those black spandex body suits, which has lived on in BCU folklore because our athletic director was throwing a fit for most of the game because he felt the suit was too tight and too revealing. Other themes followed, including suit jackets, ugly Christmas sweaters, and then came the most popular and legendary theme of them all, the throwbacks. This occurred during the Mount Marty game and, in some ways, allowed Matt to get the last laugh for the Blackout controversy because the uniforms that Matt and the guys wore were way tighter and probably more revealing than the spandex ever did.
Matt was my nomination for the Fan of the Year Award, but I was informed that the award had been discontinued but was never given an exact reason for why that was. So now he is getting the credit he deserves by becoming the 2010-11 DK Fan of the Year recipient.
2012 DK Fan of the Year: Chase Biermann
The brother of BCU Hall of Fame volleyball player Renee Biermann, Chase was around BCU athletics for a few years before arriving as a member of the soccer program. He was one of the founding members of the Soccer Hooligans and during the 2011-12 season, and took over as one of the leaders of the group following the graduation of the senior founding members. Some of Chase's trademarks that set him apart were the glasses he would wear during games (whether they were real or not I'm not sure) and whenever the ref would make a questionable call he would take off the glasses and hold them toward the ref who made the call, offering them so that the ref would call a better game, and also that he was always willing to lead the "Charger Power" chant (based off of Nebraska's "Husker Power" chant often heard during games at Memorial Stadium).
2013 DK Fan of the Year: Kevin Cannady
A member of the Charger football team, Kevin was at his best during the basketball season. Unlike a lot of BCU students, Kevin was known for showing up and cheering on the women's team as well as the men's team and for cheering on the plays of guard Kelsey Evans with the call of "I see you 4!". Another thing that made Kevin stick out from the rest of the Blue Crew in those days was that he would stick around Sioux City during Spring Break and cheer on the Chargers women's team during their National Tournament appearances in 2012 and 2013.
2014 DK Fan of the Year: "Charger" Tim and "North High" Mark
As you may recall, the 2013-14 season was not exactly a banner year for BCU Basketball. The men's team was going through a transition year without any seniors and with a larger than normal amount of underclassmen starting on the varsity, and the women's team saw the injury bug strike some key players throughout the season along with a string of close losses. Unfortunately, the tough seasons also saw a drop in student attendance at the games, so I decided to give the Fan of the Year Award to two regular guys as a reward for the loyalty they have showed over many years. "Charger Tim" (the guy in the yellow) and "North High Mark" (the guy in the blue), you probably recognize Mark as a member of the Dining crew at the Stark Center, have been a regular site at their usual front row/half-court seats of the NFC for longer than I've been following the Chargers. They rarely miss a home basketball game and can also be seen in attendance at other BCU events such as volleyball, baseball, and softball games. They are also season ticket holders for the Sioux City Bandits where they cheer on former Chargers like Jon Smith, Drew Prohaska, and Bret Van Muyden with a group of friends every spring and summer.
So that's the legacy that the 2015 winner with be joining in the upcoming post.
I'm DK and that's the 411!
