While most people would think of that title as something related to Christmas time….to anyone who has ever been a member of the Marching Southerners would have to agree — this time of year is the beginning of the most wonderful time of year and of our lives.
It’s hard to believe that 23 years ago, I packed up everything I owned in my 1983 Buick Skylark and headed to Jacksonville, Alabama to attend band camp with the Marching Southerners. I still remember the nervousness, the freedom of moving away from home, the pride, and the anticipation of what was ahead.
My rookie year of Southerners was at a time when the upperclassmen could still haze. While as I think back of it now, it wasn’t that bad being a newbie on campus…however, back then I was a little shocked of all that I had to do to become a member of this wonderful family.
Being a Trumpet “Slug”, we had to get a white t-shirt and put the word “SLUG” on it and wear it every single day of band camp without washing (for the record, I still have mine STILL unwashed and stored in a ziplock bag), wear a set of antennas on our heads, our mouthpiece had to be hung on a string, and we had to steal a salt shaker from a local eatery to carry in our pocket. I got mine from McDonalds and being naive freshman, I was sure they were going to put me in jail for stealing it.
We would practice for hours in Mason, outside in sectionals, and outside on the concrete in front of the Pete. Our tans were fabulous, the music was amazing, the first time we practiced in the stadium left me wided eyed, and the day I received my uniform was one of my proudest.
But nothing…absolutely nothing prepares a Southerner for the feeling you get the first time you step off onto the field and perform for the amazing fans of Jacksonville State. To say you’re a rock star as a member of a several hundred person group is the understatement of a lifetime.
You are a SOUTHERNER and now a family member of something that bonds you with thousands of former and future Southerners to come. Only these individuals know what it’s like to go thru this process and to not only be apart of something magical on the field but be able to portray this magic to the fans in the stands.
Over the weekend, our newest members of our family arrived on campus to learn our traditions including “Salvation” and “Stars Fell” and the vets returned to campus yesterday. The music is in the air…EVERYWHERE!
You can’t drive around Jacksonville without hearing the sectionals, hearing the metronome counting out the beat for the drum line, flags twirling in perfect motion, and ballerinas kicking without ceasing. It’s wonderful! It let’s you know that the Southerner’s season is almost here and while we’re at it, we’ll let the guys play some football too.
Why yes Virginia, the Southerners are back in town and it IS the most wonderful time of the year!
(Source: getcockyjsu.com)
It’s been a pretty well known fact that Jacksonville State’s Volleyball program has been on fire in recent years! Fantastic finishes in OVC Championships and NCAA Tournament appearances to their credit — they resignate our cheer that “It is GREAT to be a Jax State Gamecock!”
Apparently even Auburn has been watching the JSU Volleyball program as this summer they hired our coach Rick Nold to lead the Tigers/War Eagles/Plainsmen to the promised land in the SEC.
So add a little more excitement with the hiring of Joseph Goodson to lead our Lady Gameocks and take us to the next level.
Coach Goodson arrives here from coaching at University of Wisconsin — Green Bay but is actually from our neighboring state of Georgia. A Graduate of Berry College, he has coached at Georgia Tech, Emory, and UGA. We are excited about what he has to offer and what it will mean to continuing the explosion of our program in a national level!
Get Cocky! wanted to celebrate our Volleyball program as well so we have developed a new volleyball line that is available now online and in our store on the square! This line is not only in our regular t-shirts but also in women’s cut t-shirts for our Lady Gamecocks!
So we would like to challenge all of our students, alumni, and friends to “Pack The Pete” this season and lets cheer our Lady Gamecocks all the way to the championship!
GO GAMECOCKS!
(Source: GetCockyJSU.com)
At the end of most years, most people are ready to be done with the year and move onto new beginnings. With all that has happened in the world with the recession, I really can’t blame anyone for those feelings. However, I must admit that while I’m really excited about 2010, I have to say that 2009 was filled with great beginnings for Get Cocky!
As I have already talked about in this blog, Get Cocky has been a 20 year old dream that I came up with when I was a student at Jacksonville State. So having that dream come true was such an amazing experience!
We opened up our web-based store in September this year and amazed at the huge response we received! Apparently there were more JSU peeps wanting something different than just me! 2009 was a great start for Get Cocky!
But 2010 has great things in store as well — for JSU and Get Cocky!
JSU has great things in store — softball team gets to build on what they started last year, the addition to our football stadium, playing Ole Miss and Georgia State in Football season…the list goes on and on!
For Get Cocky…our product line is expanding, we are opening our physical location, and we are looking to growing our relationship with the students and residents. 2010 sounds so exciting we’re about bursting at the seems for it to start!
So thanks 2009 for a great foundation — and welcome 2010 for all the exciting things to come!
Last night I had the privilege of being apart of the first meeting of the South Atlanta JSU Alumni. I have lived in south Atlanta 11 years (ok, THIS time, I’ve only lived here 6 other times before in my life—army brat, you understand). Most of the Atlanta Alumni meetings I have attended, have resulted in road rage along the way to get to the meeting normally held in North Atlanta.
Kaci Ogle of the alumni office and I got to talking and I started naming off many of the alumni on the south side, the number of Band Directors on this end of town (seems like the majority of schools have a former Southerners leading the music departments) so we thought — what the heck, we’ll try an exploratory meeting to start a group down here.
About 20 of us met at Partners II Pizza in Tyrone last night and had a ball…you might have known someone before you came (I think I knew one) but before you knew it, the people around you knew someone who knew someone and so forth. The great common denominator was we were all Gamecocks — some of us Southerners, others 92J jocks, drama peeps, and even athletes — but we were all Gamecocks.
What wasn’t surprising to me was that we all loved our time at JSU and couldn’t help but share that with the group — it molded us to be who we are, who our extended family ended up becoming, and where we tell any young person around us about the University we love and why they should love it to.
I know many people that have gone to other schools and when they talk about their college experience I hear about how they went there but it wasn’t the experience that Jacksonville State seems to impress on those who go there. They just went to college — no big deal and have never been back since.
I wish I could explain how a modest size University in a small sleepy town at the Foothills of the mountains in Northeast Alabama becomes the place that changes your life…but it does…and last night proved it 20 times over…
PROUD to be a Gamecock!
With the unfortunate short ending to JSU’s incredible season this year, I must say a few words about our senior quarterback, Ryan Perrilloux.
Ryan was the quarterback for my beloved LSU Tigers where I worked for many years. I had heard the rumblings about him from former co-workers and even the comparision of his off the field antics to those of Kevin Faulk, who was a student while I worked at LSU. But we won the national championship and of course with that much is forgiven both on and off the field.
But it came as little surprise to me when I heard that Ryan had been kicked off the team by Coach Les Miles for violating team rules.
What was a shock to me was the announcement that Ryan would be transferring to my alma mater at Jacksonville State in 2008. Being an avid ESPN Radio listener, I had heard a grocery list of schools interested in talking to him come play for their school but Jacksonville State??? “The Friendliest Campus In The South?” Say it ain’t so Jack Crowe! We don’t need the controversy or the bad press I thought.
But I’ll be the first to admit it — Ryan has turned out to be an outstanding young man both on the field and off.
He certainly didn’t have an easy time of it as he had many people watching him at every turn and calling the Athletic Department everytime he held his fork wrong (a small town will do that for you). But he allowed JSU to mold him as it has molded so many of our alumni.
Our fans definitely enjoyed the ride and seeing Ryan’s extraordinary moves on the field and his inspiring his teammates to play smarder, run faster, hit harder and truly move JSU Football to another level of glory that many questioned we could ever return to. He made us proud on the national level at our oh so close fight at FSU and by winning the OVC.
Upon the end of his last game, Ryan stated that coming to JSU was the best decision he had ever made and that it changed him as a person.
So I, for one, stand corrected of my original thoughts — what I thought was a terrible mistake to bring this young man to our friendly little campus proved to be exactly what he and WE needed.
Congratulations Ryan on your final season — we look forward to watching you making Gamecocks everywhere proud in your next stage of your life!
