Tuesday, March 1, 2011

PanAmmunition.....Too long in the making, but a great idea for NMSU hoops moving forward

Following is a Q&A with an anon contributor to The PanAmmunition, NMSU's student formed content regarding the Aggies men's basketball team. 




JG: Like I said before, I think it’s a good idea to get the students more involved in home games. I guess my first question is how did your group form and why? Was there a group of students who were disappointed with the participation in home games?


We started after a tough loss on the road. We were watching the game on TV and the loss just hit us hard. We sat there soaking it all in and just started brainstorming how we could improve things for when this team played us at home. Writing ideas on a napkin slowly evolved into writing ideas down on how to improve home games in general. We committed and we went for it. One of the biggest motivators was our desire to bring back the traditions pride of our already historic program. We want to start some traditions of our own but our real goal is to bring the fanbase back to where it was in the early ‘90’s with the true “Panamaniacs.” Other schools don’t have a history as rich as ours and that’s why it was so easy to get rolling. The alumni and students were just waiting for some one to step up.

JG:What was the first game? I believe it was Idaho but I could be mistaken.


The first game was Boise State. Since then we’ve had four.

JG: How many students are involved?


There are two main writers but we have an individual helping with design and also two “guest” writers who give us contributions at times. We’ve come to form a really great team. What’s really neat is that we’re not all even in the same city and some of us have yet to meet in-person.

JG:Would you say there was a lack of student interest in games?


Absolutely. I would say the problem is mostly due to ignorance. We have such a talented team, one of the best we have had in years and a huge majority of the student body just has no clue. We owe it to the hard work of the players to get the word out and get the attendance up again. To bring these students our, we’re really trying to improve the whole game experience and show them how fun cheering on your team can be. The team has done their part and excelled on the court despite the low attendance, we really want to see how far things could go for the Aggies if they had their entire student body behind them.

JG: How do you go about gathering the information on opposing teams and players? How involved is it?


We don’t want to give away our tactics but it’s very involved. We’ve established a system that we have to start a few weeks in advance. We really take pride in this part of our issues though. We figure that if we can find something that gets under an opponent's skin and get them flustered emotionally, then we can really affect the game.

JG:Utah State and other schools have had similar publications....do you model yours off of any particular schools?


Our first issue was modeled after Utah State’s “The Refraction.” Since then we like to think that we’ve come a long way both in appearance and content. We’ve become something more than just a publication as well. We’ve formed a club of sorts comprised of our fans. We’ve really utilized our resources well in order to make it easier on us and also to get the community involved so that they really feel like their part of our publication.

JG:What has been the reaction from the university if at all?


We’re still getting the word out, but the university as a whole has been very receptive and supportive. Within 48 hours of making our Facebook page, the University’s marketing team had reached out to us and has been very helpful. We’ve formed a great relationship with the athletic department all the way up to Dr. Boston. The students really enjoy reading us and a number of alumni have contributed monetarily. We recently set up a paypal account to help funding, not only the publication, but marketing and other materials we need for game days, and the response from that has been outstanding. The community has been so generous and the support has been so helpful. We love to know that people have our back and we love how excited people are to see changes at the Pan Am.

JG: Is there something special in store for the last home stand of the season?


Yes. Look for old traditions being brought back to life these last two games. The common fan doesn’t realize how heated these two rivalries are (especially the Utah State one). We’ve had these two circled on the calendar since our first issue. Everyone’s just going to have to head out to the Pan American Center to see what we have in store!

JG:Anything else we should know??

We’re accepting donations to help with our cause and you can find a fundraising letter on our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-PanAmmunition/189238921094403?sk=app_4949752878

You can also follow us on Twitter here: 
http://twitter.com/#!/PanAmmunition


Las Cruces, you don't know what you're missing!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

If only the team had the gumption the Panammunition have. They might even rebound, play defense, block out...take care of the ball. In short, they may actually play the game up to their potential. (Yes, I know some will say they ARE playing to their potential...)

Anonymous said...

The Utah State issue is out. Check it out here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49830229/The-PanAmmunition-Volume-1-Issue-5-Utah-State

Anonymous said...

If you're going to be second to the party why even show up? At least be original, your Panammunition looks awfully familiar to Utah States "Refraction."

Jason Groves said...

Anon 732. I challenge anyone outside of the student body to complain about anything regarding attendance at the Pan Am. People make excuses all the time not to come to games. The handful of people responsible for the PanAmmuntion are better fans than most of the 3 to 4 thousand that will be in attendance tonight

Anonymous said...

What does "better fans" mean? Do you even have a definition for your own terms?

Anonymous said...

It's great to have some sort of publication but it is totally ripping off The Refraction.

Whats next? The Aggies fans do the winning team, losing team chant? I hope the Panamunition guys do their best to make it as original as possible.

Anonymous said...

How many sub .500 teams are you going to pay to watch?

Jason Groves said...

Better fans means people that actually go to games and follow the team. I've read comments regarding Gordo Castillo needing to play more but don't realize he is top five in minutes. The PanAmmunition gives the students section a better understanding of each and every game, even if it started as a copycat of Utah State's Refraction. What they do with it is up to them. Some of the chants students have come up with have been pretty good thus far. A motivated student section is important to any basketball program so ripping on a group of students trying to generate interest among themselves makes no sense to me.

Tjones said...

They pack their arena more often then not, and they aren't doing it because of a gameday newsletter, so maybe a blog about the correlation between a respectable program and the fans it brings and NMSU's program and the fans it doesn't is in order

Anonymous said...

Who cares if they modeled the first issue after the refraction. They even gave them props. It now looks a heck of a lot better than the refraction and it's content is in another league from USU's latest issues.

The Refraction is on a downward slope and the PanAmmunition is on an upward swing. Don't hate because of that.

@Tony Jones- We may not come FOR these guys' publication but it sure makes the game experience a lot more fun when the students are on the same page(literally). It's more than just a newsletter, it's adding excitement into all parts of the fan-base.


The students' most organized effort was against Northern Colorado. Do you think that would have happened against a sub-par team without the PanAmmunition? I sure don't.

Anonymous said...

There's an awful lot of hate from Logan in this comments section. This despite the PanAmmunition staff's mention of the Refraction as inspiration. It's a compliment, a shout out, etc. My question is this: Why the hell not? USU is a great model for NMSU to follow. You gotta start somewhere, and these students are doing what's in their power to improve attendance and the game atmosphere that's been lost in recent years at the Pan Am. Discourage them if you want, but it's just blatant rival banter. Don't like it? It's not for you anyway.

Second to the party? Didn't Microsoft rip off the windows concept from Apple? We all know how that never caught on and failed miserably. The PanAmmunition is in its infancy and already LOOKS better than The Refraction.

And any objectively editorial (and moral) commentary from Tony Jones of Aggieville should be cast aside. He's too busy jabbing rival athletes and spewing personal opinion on his Twitter page and blog to be taken seriously as a legitimate journalist. Can't have it both ways, Tony. Besides, it's not your place to decide how the NMSU fans that DO show up in Las Cruces should feel about their program. Yeah, a newsletter is not the solution...but it's a start and something students can control. Or is EVERYONE in Logan so high on their moral pedestal that if it's not done their way, it can't be done? Give me a break...

Anonymous said...

Who cares anon 858 if it's a ripoff. You know that success breathes imitation. If something is working, why not try to use it. Nobody cares who started it but how well your product comes out. Just go to the game and quit being negative.

Anonymous said...

Are you effing kidding me??? USU fans blaming us for copying them? Then asking "what next, winning team, losing team"??? NEWS FLASH to you geniouses, you copied that chant from someone else!!!

Anonymous said...

i'm glad someone is organizing!!

I've been disappointed with the poor student section in recent years. I hope this catches on.

Good job guys.

Brandon said...

Utah State fan here - I just want to say that I support you getting student involvement for your team. While I do have to say it seems to parallel what Utah State does in so many ways, why the hell not? I hate to say it, but our conference is a joke. If some NMSU fans are going to take it upon themselves to pump up their basketball team and make themselves contenders then I'm all for it. I still dislike your program, but sometimes I like to dislike something. I know as a Sophomore here going to my first basketball game the Refraction had me laughing my ass off. The chants made me excited and then when we won and sang together in the school song I knew I was going to be back. Get the student involvement up and community involvement will follow. Maybe SJSU, Idaho and LTU can put in some fan effort at some point. The WAC doesn't need to live in the shadow of the MWC. Keep getting pumped for your home game guys!

Brandon said...

Utah State fan here - I just want to say that I support you getting student involvement for your team. While I do have to say it seems to parallel what Utah State does in so many ways, why the hell not? I hate to say it, but our conference is a joke right now.

If some NMSU fans are going to take it upon themselves to pump up their basketball team and make themselves contenders then I'm all for it. I still dislike your program, but sometimes I like to dislike something.

I know as a Sophomore here going to my first basketball game the Refraction had me laughing my ass off. The chants made me excited and then when we won and sang together in the school song I knew I was going to be back. Get the student involvement up and community involvement will follow. Maybe SJSU, Idaho and LTU can put in some fan effort at some point. The WAC doesn't need to live in the shadow of the MWC. It's a process but a few students can change things. Keep getting pumped for your home game guys!