Collegiate Times

It?s not often that Athletic Director Jim Weaver, Football Coach Frank Beamer, Basketball Coach Seth Greeenberg and vice president for student affairs Zenobia Hikes end up at the same place at the same time. In Whitemore Hall last night, the quartet were brought together in a forum by the theme of Hokie Respect.

Weaver started the forum off by defining Hokie respect as ?an effort to promote sportsmanship throughout the entire athletics program at Virginia Tech.?

Created in the summer of 2003, the objective of the Hokie Respect campaign was to empower Hokie fans to become caretakers of their college game day experience and promote first-class fan conduct at sporting events, said Weaver.

?You?d be amazed at how many emails I get from old Hokies who might not be as in touch with reality in today?s world,? said Weaver. ?They?re concerned about such things as booing the opposing team when they enter the field and interfering with the artist when he or she sings the national anthem.?

In order to contain this respect, Weaver said to respect yourself first. Then, respect the moment, the opponent, the game and the competition.

?If you have self-respect in everything that you do, we can create an environment where we can control the type of behavior that exists at Tech sporting events,? said Weaver. ?It starts with respecting yourself.?

Coach Beamer encouraged Hokies to show respect to their opponents.

?For all of us, let?s play hard, cheer hard, work like heck, but also pick our opponents up,? said Beamer.

For Beamer it isn?t only about winning.

?There?s a lot of people with different interests, but when we get in the stadium, we?re all after the same thing,? said Beamer. ?If we put forth great effort to help Virginia Tech win, we can work towards being the best sports team in the ACC.

Greenberg?s stance on sportsmanship involved ownership.

?Everyone talks about Duke fans,? said Greenberg. ?Duke fans are creative without being offensive. They have unbelievable ownership in their program. It?s a tad bit humorous, without being offensive,? Greenberg said.

Greenberg also offered different ways to cheer without being disrespectful.

?Arrive early to games,? said Greenberg. ?Do you know how intimidating it is to walk into an arena and have a student section filled an hour before the game??

Hokies created this atmosphere of supporting the team without being offensive by the famous third-down key plays as well as by making the ever-imposing ?gobble? noise at football games.

?The best way you can respect, have Hokie Respect, is to get behind your team and not worry about the opponent,? said Greenberg.

Hokie Respect extended beyond athletics as well. Hikes spoke about respect outside of the classrooms and inside of residence halls.

?Our community of Hokies is made up of all kinds of people with different beliefs and thoughts,? said Hikes.  ?As an academic community, we need to be more open and accepting of different views.

Problems with graffiti of racial and sexual orientation inside the residence halls also disrespected the community.

?Our behavior isn?t just confined to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Blacksburg</st1:place></st1:City>,? said Hikes. ?This is our home. This is our campus. We need to care about what goes on here.?

Weaver allowed that the campaign is far from finished.

?This sportsmanship campaign, this Hokie respect, is a journey that will never reach the end,? said Weaver. ?There will always be a need to continue to talk about and work upon bettering the environment for our fans to enjoy the athletic competition of intercollegiate athletics.