Ram Madness charges up fans

VCU kicked off its 2006-07 basketball season Friday night with Ram Madness, held at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.

Head coach Anthony Grant made his VCU debut and gave encouragement to the faculty and students sitting in the stands.

“These guys have been working really hard,” Grant said of the men’s team. Grant expects a good season.

T-shirts were given to the first 1,000 students and the first 500 students received a coupon for a free drink, popcorn and hot dog.

Students were eligible for many other awards including a flat screen TV, free parking for a semester, $500 towards books, a roundtrip flight to anywhere courtesy of Jet Blue, and two students walked away with a semester of free in-state tuition. Last year, only one in-state tuition was given away.

The host for the evening was Ronald Young Jr. who described Ram Madness as “a really good time.”

“It was nice to see all the sports teams come out and all the fans come out to support the sports teams,” he said.

Before the women and men’s basketball team was introduced, the night began with a series of contests. There was the three-point contest where students had the help of basketball team members to throw the ball back to them.

The dunk contest involved students attempting to touch the rim, which turned out to be a lot higher than they anticipated.

The dance contest had students in the stands rolling with laughter as the con-

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testants shimmied, popped and booty-shaked their way through the contest, which finally ended when a contestant without dance skills was deemed too hilarious not to win.

Since it is October and Halloween is approaching, Ram Madness held a scream contest. The competitors took deep breaths and then let it go, filling the Siegel Center with shrieks and squeals.

Neon colored airplanes flew through the air during a paper airplane contest.

The VCU cheerleaders got the crowd pumped up exhibiting some of their signature lifts, flips and cheers, but held onto some moves to surprise attendants throughout the season.

The VCU dance teams took the floor to Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack,” showing off their hip-hop moves and dance techniques.

At the end of the night, Young introduced the basketball teams. The women players came first, each member of the team throwing shirts to the audience and taking their time to do a little dance.

The men’s basketball team came out through the tunnel of cheerleaders, throwing shirts as well. They each had a dance ready for the audience, as they walked out and stole the hearts of some girls in attendance.

Ram Madness closed with a scrimmage by the men’s team. Half of them wore gold and the other half wore black.

Young said, “Ram Madness charges the fans and sparks an interest in the basketball team that will keep them coming to the games and paying attention to the team throughout the season.”

With fancy dunks and a few three-pointers the students left hopeful for another good season from the basketball teams.