It is my humble opinion that these teams belong to the students 1st........not us as Alumni.

We all Love Ohio........that's why we are here.....let's not turn it in to who loves it more.

But it is the students.....not the Alumni that will make it Loud, Proud, and a tough place to play......be it Peden or The Convo.

I want them to raise a little hell........but keepin it respectful

We need to let them run their race!!!! and make us all proud......We have ran ours.

One of the biggest complaints up 33 is the student sections do not have enough impact......do we want to become thar?

Last Edited: 10/15/2012 7:57:17 PM by 87OU Alum

 Well, I will throw my two cents in.

I started at OHIO in 2006 and immediately joined the OZONE for basketball. I got to know a few of the leaders and really respected what they are doing. That is truly a thankless job and they should be commended for both their leadership and their love of their university.

However, last year was my first year of not being a student (after both undergrad and graduate school). I was still in the Athens area and attended many football and basketball games. I have to agree with some of the comments above. The leadership last year appeared completely disorganized. There has become a trend in recent years that seems to promote a line of thinking that more is more as in the more obnoxious, the better.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that we should harp on the OZONE for everything. OHIO is not Virgin Mary Holy Cross University or anything. It isn't like we are a school of nuns. However, the un-originality, the vulgarity, and the outright ignorance of some in the group has been mind boggling. Some of the worst attacks have been directed towards those international student athletes. I don't really know when it became acceptable to chant USA USA at a player, especially when KVK was from the Netherlands, but that has to stop.... and that I blame on leadership. 

A strong leadership organizes the leadership structure to facilitate the most from the group. Why the leadership stands at center court has never made sense to me. Why not spread out to the front of each section and become section leaders. Organize your cheers by numbers so that people know what they are going to be doing at certain points. Having these section leaders helps to 1) lead organized, meaningful chants and 2) helps to semi-patrol the section for those who need to be asked to restrain themselves or removed all together. There has to be a concerted effort to change or change will never come. You can't simply say, "could we tone it back? Sure" and then not do anything about it. 

Like I said before, I know this is a thankless job and you should be commended for your initiative to lead and your love of OHIO. These are just a few things that I have noticed in the last year or two that really needs to be cleaned up, or comments like before are going to continue.

Criticize the lack of coordinated cheers, criticize the noise levels, but understand O Zone board members have no control over what other college kids say.

It wasn't mentioned it this thread, but the lack of bus trips have been an issue the last couple years.  I hate to say it, but O Zone leadership almost needs to be not so nice people to make these things happen.  Marketing doesn't make it easy to do anything.

edit:
Also, the O Zone in football is 10000x better than it has ever been.  That is a credit to winning more than anything, but all the criticism after a noon game that saw the most students ever stay for a full game that wasn't extremely close is a little ridiculous.  The whole stadium was dead, not just the O Zone  The Temple and Marshall night games last year were ELECTRIC.  I fully expect the 2 MACtions games coming up to be insane with student support.

Hell, they implemented an AWESOME OU Oh Yeah cheer and all I hear is "get off my lawn we are Ohio not OU."  The other side of the stadium needs as much work as anything.  The O Zone is louder than Section 105, and you guys don't have multiple incidents of people getting kicked out for standing over there. 

Last Edited: 10/15/2012 10:47:39 PM by The Optimist

Last Edited: 10/15/2012 10:57:07 PM by shabamon

Easy to implement? I couldn't even get the athletic department to update the O Zone page on ohiobobcats.com when I was working with the O Zone.  I'd be all for creating a separate website, the O Zone definitely has the money... But putting something like that together is hardly "easy."

If you want fan behavior controlled, it has to come from Ohio Athletics officials.  No one is going to respect another college student in a O Zone shirt telling them to stop cheering.  An Ohio Athletics Polo? That is a little different.  Stadium security? Well, I sure don't respect those clowns.  

Also, +1 to RPKirtland.