I remember going to my first home football game as a young sophomore at Northridge High School. We were escorted to a designated spot in the bleachers and told that we were now members of The Ridge, the name that was given to the student section at that time. For the rest of the game, we in that section would scream ourselves hoarse as the night’s game unfolded before our eyes.

Frankly, as I aged in my high school life, I began to drift away from the student section, mostly due to the sports fan in me wanting to focus on the game and not scream my lungs out for no reason. The glitz and glam of The Ridge quickly wore off for me.

Recently, I noticed that the student body renamed the section The Black Plague, due to the current school shirt color being black. Historical significance of The Black Plague aside, to me, this name was undeniably ridiculous.

I share all of this to prove a point. Fans of a sport are quick to identify themselves with the team by their fan sections. Just in Utah alone, there are famous fan sections for Utah State University, the U of U and Real Salt Lake. Don’t believe me? Walk up to a fan of the aforementioned teams and talk about The Herd, The MUSS or The RioT in a negative light, and see the passion flare.

Heck, even the team down south at Brigham Young University has given its fans a name in the Roar of the Cougars, ROC for short. There is a lot of humor in that one, mostly due to the fact that the North American mountain lion isn’t known to roar.

Personally, I would have gone with the Elders Quorum or MIA (Mutual Improvement Association), but hey, I can’t win ’em all, guys.

Here at Weber State, we do not have such a tradition of a name for our student section. Seeing as the general stigma of being a student here is one of commuting, I can sympathize with the student body as to why that is.

Even our mascot, The Wildcat, is known to be a solitary animal. So seeing one in a pack is rare sight indeed.

But here at WSU, we challenge the norms of traditional college life, and this Homecoming Week, we have a chance to do just that.

The WSUSA Executives have taken the initiative to re-brand our student section. They’ve been working, planing and surveying to find out what the students want. They are working to unify the student body as a whole. They announced at their weekly board meeting that the name chosen for our student section is The Wildcat Front, The Front for short.

We don’t have time to discuss every like and dislike about this name, and honestly who cares? It’s just a name. It will probably change in a few years, anyway.

The real need here is for us as a student body to show some pride in our school. You are spending countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars here in getting an education, and so to paraphrase The Beach Boys, be true to your school.

This homecoming, whether it’s you first or your last, take a moment to look at where you stand because at Weber State, you stand as one of many who can forever call themselves a Wildcat.