Just watching soccer can be an exciting experience, especially at the Bearcat Sports Complex. But some Binghamton University fans take it to another level.
If you feel you were born to do more than just watch the game … if you feel you have the power to bring forth mockery and terror to the opponents … if you want to streak your face with green and white, and sing English songs with a group of burly men — well, die-hard fans — there is a spot reserved just for you right next to the press box.
They go by the name of the Bearcat Hooligans. Their motto, according to their Facebook group: “We are the boys (and girls) at every game. We sing, we chant. We bleed green and white.”
The Hooligans have a complete list of chants and songs, which are modified with a Bearcats theme from traditional chants. Here is an example of one taken from an English cheer:
“Hullo Hullo
We are the Bearcat boys
Hullo Hullo
You’ll know us by our noise
We’re up to our knees in [rival] blood
Surrender or you’ll die
For we are the Binghamton Bearcat boys”
The students and local residents came out in droves last season, the first at the newly built BSC. By the end of November, nobody cared that Binghamton did not have an American football team.
It was all about European football now. Binghamton University finished ranked 21st in the nation for average home record attendance, besting the average turnout for the men’s basketball teams at America East rivals Hartford and Stony Brook.
And it helps that the men’s soccer team has been by far Binghamton’s most successful Division I team. The Bearcats have made the America East finals for five straight seasons, winning two championships along the way.
Behind all the madness is BU senior and president of the Bearcat Hooligans, Erwin Seguia, who last year brought together a group of his friends to come and cheer in the stands.
“We watched [the movie] Green Street Hooligans and that just got a bunch of the guys off,” Seguia said. “We thought, ‘This is really cool, we should do something like this.’”
Hence the birth of what many would call Binghamton University’s greatest cheer team. Not only do the Hooligans cheer, but they get under the skin of opponents as well.
University of Vermont goalie Roger Scully had a few choice words for the Bearcat Hooligans after his team defeated Binghamton 1-0 in the AE Championship last season.
As he threw the soccer ball into stands where the critics stood, Scully yelled to the Hooligans, “Go fuck yourselves.”
The resentment from the opposing teams only shows how effective the Hooligans are in tapping into the game. But despite the fan ferocity, most students love to join the team to show their support for BU soccer and the heart for their school.
Joining the Bearcat Hooligans is simple.
“Bring your voice,” Seguia said. “Just be ready to yell and have some fun. Join up the Facebook group, know your chants and show up at the games. Anyone that wants to can show up … It’s not like an exclusive thing. So just look for us up in the bleachers. You can’t miss us.”
To join the Bearcat Hooligans Facebook group, look under the Binghamton network in “sports and recreation, college sports.”
This coming year the Hooligans look forward to traveling to some more of the away games including Cornell and Albany. And you can be sure that they will be ready to grill Vermont the next time it steps into the BSC after taking away last year’s title from the Bearcats.
“It’s about getting everybody behind a team that is wonderful and amazing,” Seguia said. “[It’s] been around for a while and nobody has really ever paid attention to it ‘til now.”