Screaming children are typically not a pleasant thing to hear on a Wednesday morning.
However, for Colorado State, more than 6,000 elementary school students proved to be the necessary component for the 54-51 win.
Education Day at Moby Arena brought students from Thompson and Poudre School Districts in a frenzy of high-pitched shrieks and uncontainable energy. The different classes piled into seats as the quantities doubled by the minute.
It was a rare day in education where the teachers wanted their kids to be as loud as humanly possible.
“I know it’s a really fun day for them and there was a lot of energy in that arena today, and I think that really sparked us as that game progressed,” coach Ryan Williams said. “But they provided the Moby Magic today.”
There must have been something about raising the frequency level that put a dog whistle to the Wolf Pack’s ears.
While Mckenna Hofschild struggled from the field, Hannah Ronsiek, Marta Leimane and Sanna Strom combined for 34 points. There’s one lesson the students learned from the contest, which is there is no “I” in team.
“We’re a better basketball team right now than we were a while ago just because everybody is involved,” Willaims said. “They did a nice job on McKenna, they took her out of it, but kids like Marty, Hannah had a really good stretch, Sanna’s been playing really well. Crocker had seven-straight points there in that third.”
It was not until 8:25 in the third when Strom tied the game for the Rams for the first time. From there the Wolf Pack ran ahead again, and the Rams fought to tie multiple times. It was not until 8:07 in the fourth that CSU led the game and never looked back.
The most challenging part for the Rams was the fact they got close to leading so many times. However, the Rams were not going to let Nevada have another victory over them this season. After Nevada defeated CSU in Reno, Nevada 78-51, the Rams came into this contest with a chip on their shoulder.
“We didn’t come out like we wanted to when we were in Nevada and we kind of came out a little bit slow today,” Ronsiek said. “I think after our halftime talk, we decided we weren’t going to let Nevada repeat itself.”
Ronsiek finished as the leading scorer for the Rams with 15 points. In a contest in which she said she expected to score most of her points in the paint, she instead shot 5-of-8 from three.
“I’ve kind of been up and down this season with my 3-point shooting, but it’s usually when I knock down my first couple is when the basket gets a little bit bigger for me,” Ronsiek said.
Overall, something just clicked for the Rams that did not in Reno. Fortunately, this time, what the Rams had was an army of small children that shaped the atmosphere in their favor.
“Here at the kids’ game, we love them, but they are just screaming,” Crocker said. “There is never a dull moment and you literally cannot hear – and you have to really focus the whole game no matter what’s happening. So, I think it’s just a different fun atmosphere.”
When Crocker said they were just screaming, she was not kidding. Several times, the students cheered when the Rams picked up a charge, not realizing the possession was going to Nevada. Yet when it came down to the important things like the Wolf Pack shooting free throws, the crowd did exactly what they needed to do. Moby was absolute chaos.
To top the victory off with one more highlight, coach Williams became Grandpa Williams on Feb. 27. He was so excited to mention it, after ending the press conference he sat back down and asked for the camera to start recording again.
“Hey, one other thing, in all honesty, turn that back on if you can,” Williams said. “It was our 27th game, I had a granddaughter, her name was Hadley, and she was born on the 27th. We got a W, and that’s our lucky number – so that one’s for you Hadley.”