Tampa subregional

Proud to be loud and in your face

TAMPA -- They're not the best band in the country. They're not the biggest. They're not the most dangerous.

The loudest? The rowdiest? The most annoying? Hey, the Demon Deacon Pep Band is down with that. Or is it the Wake Forest Pep Band?

"Uh ... either one," said band member Daniel McGinley.

"We're not really sure which it is," Matt Morgan said.

With members dressed in vision-impairing, yellow tie-dyed T-shirts for Friday's first round NCAA meeting between Wake Forest and East Tennessee State at the St. Pete Times Forum, it is the Caddyshack of pep bands.

They can carry a tune, sure, but attitude sets them apart, whether it's blaring Demon Deacon Joy, talking trash to the East Tennessee State band or screaming at opposing players at the free throw line.

"If you're talking about musicality, we're not exactly into that," said junior McGinley, 21, an anthropology major. "We just enjoy being louder and more obnoxious than the other band."

"Honestly our role is to just to support the team," said junior Morgan, 20, an English/pre-med major. "It just depends on what you mean by the best."

They can dish it out, and they can take it. Last year against Oregon in the second round, the Ducks' band wanted to know what a Deacon was. "Go to church," the Wake band chanted back.

Other times, they're just weird.

"Once we said 'Picture us naked," McGinley said.

"Except that you messed up," Morgan said. "It was supposed to be 'Picture us in our underwear."'

Said McGinley: "It'll take your mind off what you're doing. That's the whole point, isn't it?"

A MAN CALLED HAWK: Four seniors finished their last game for Saint Joseph's Friday afternoon. One wore feathers.

Steve Klarich, the 56th student to bear the honor of being SJU's The Hawk, the school's famous mascot, flapped his wings for his 60th and final game.

That's right, flapped. The Hawk's arms are never at rest during a game. From the time he leaves the locker room to the figure eights he runs around the court at halftime to overtime and beyond, The Hawk must always flap.

"The Hawk symbolizes the school, that The Hawk will never die," said the 21-year-old fourth-year food and marketing major. "Like today, we were down by I don't know how many and we came back. We refuse to go down. That's what the flapping is supposed to symbolize, no matter what, win or lose."

The Hawk is revered at SJU. Coach Phil Martelli interviews and selects the mascot. The Hawk is always with the team. In the locker room he dresses with the team. He's there on the bench, in meetings, by the huddle.

When you see Klarich in person, the first thing you look for is his famous arms -- only they're thin pipe-cleaners, covered in veins.

"I didn't get the job because I'm in shape," he said. "You have to have passion for it."

HAVE A NICE FLIGHT BACK: David Hirshman was in line first thing Monday morning at 7:30 to get tickets to Colorado's first-round game in Tampa. The only one.

"I'm sitting around waiting and when the ticket office opens up at 8:30 a.m. I'm still the only one in line," said the 28-year-old graduate student. "I am the only one in line getting tickets to the NCAA Tournament in Tampa."

Then came Tuesday's snowstorm, Colorado's worst in 90 years. His Wednesday 8 a.m. Northwest flight was canceled. His next flight was 5 p.m. Thursday.

He was four hours early. It wasn't early enough.

"It took me two hours to get my boarding pass, and the line was 200-deep," he said. "It took me another hour to get through security, and I had to hop and beg people to let me through the line."

The flight left at 6 p.m. It arrived in Tampa at 12:30 a.m.

All that, and Colorado fell 79-64 to Michigan State. Hirshman's biggest disappointment: He was only one of a handful of Buffaloes' fans.

"They're getting better," he said. "But we're not a basketball state yet."

COLORS: It was time to show the colors at Friday's NCAA Tournament.

No matter whose colors they were.

Alan Black, 52, a driver's education teacher and boys golf coach at Wesley Chapel High School in Pasco County, proudly bears Indiana colors.

"Can you think of a better school to root for?" the Fort Wayne native asked.

He's not the only one out of place. There's Carolina blue, Kentucky blue and Cameron Crazie blue. There's Maryland, Georgetown, Ohio State, South Florida ... you get the idea.

Texas graduate Andy Westfall, a 36-year-old civil engineer from Tampa, is here for the same reason many locals are.

"Because I live here," he said. But he hasn't gotten much flack for wearing Longhorn colors, said friend Sean Sullivan, 35, a software engineer from Atlanta.

"That's because everyone thinks he's for Tennessee," he said.

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