Fan day 2021: Success in "personalization" of virginia tech football

Carter Hill

Football Beat Writer

August 16, 2021

BLACKSBURG — Last fall Kyle Tucker and his two sons, Evan and Ethan, felt the absence of ritual. As Salem, Va. residents and Virginia Tech football fans, who frequent the trip to Lane Stadium, there was no half-hour drive to catch a football game. They couldn’t smell the freshly cooked turkey legs; no keys were heard jingling on third down; their voices, yells and screams were drowned out, reduced to fake crowd noise as covid restrictions barred them from seeing their favorite team.

But on Sunday afternoon, inside the Beamer-Lawson Indoor Practice Facility, the curtain that separated the program and the fans for a season opened up as Virginia Tech’s Fan Appreciation Day returned, following a one year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. And for most, it was a satisfying day that gave fans one final shot to peek behind the curtain before the Hokies tee it off against North Carolina, a team ranked No. 9 on the USA Today preseason coaches poll, on Sept. 3 inside Lane Stadium.

“Coming from last year where there really wasn’t a way to have anything like this...it’s important,” Tucker said. “Especially for the kids and the community, you know everybody’s still kind of rebounding from 2020. It just brings kind of a personalization to the program that you don’t get really all the time.”

“It’s huge,” said Austin Dowdy, who made the hour-long trek with his brother, Cameron, from Bluefield, West Virginia to get a plethora of fresh signatures on their 2011 orange striped Tech football helmet.

“You get fan interaction with the players, coaches, things of that nature,” Cameron said, finishing his brother’s thoughts. “You really get to know everybody. You get to know who everybody is and anything about them, really.”

“It can bring the fans all together,” said 13-year-old and Blacksburg resident Caden Byrd while tossing a football around in the middle of a flock of cheerleaders and the “HighTechs,” the Virginia Tech dance team.

That can also be said for both James O’Mara and Noah Dize, both of whom recently moved in to begin their freshman year at Virginia Tech. Dize, a biochemistry major from Northern Virginia, said he’s “hopeful” he’ll be in attendance for all seven home games.

“I’m pretty excited,” Dize said with a grin. “I just got my season tickets.” O’Mara, a neuroscience major, will be right there with him.

Richie Gallimore, a fellow season ticket holder and Blacksburg native, said that he and his nine-year old son Charlie are “very excited to be back and going to the games”; with Charlie putting a special emphasis on being able to once again jump to Metallica's “Enter Sandman” as the Hokies walk from the locker room to take the field before kickoff.

The Dowdy brothers shared Gallimore’s excitement for the season. “I’m so excited. It’s time, let’s go.” Cameron said he’s envisioning a 9-3 or 8-4 record for head coach Justin Fuente’s Hokies in 2021, but added that “you always have to hope [to be] perfect.”

Although they call the Mountaineer state home, growing up in the backyard of Virginia Tech drove the pair to become “die hard Hokies,” according to Austin. “We come to plenty of the games, always come to Fan Day; we just love being a Hokie.”

With the majority of the roster and coaches seated to autograph memorabilia for the hundreds of fans in attendance, it was pretty easy for VT fans to find their favorite players.

Byrd’s favorite is a popular pick. Linebacker Dax Hollifield moves the needle for the middle school supporter, while cornerback Dorian Strong headlines Cameron Dowdy’s list.

For the Tucker brothers, it was an easy choice. Former Salem High School standouts Jorden and Jayden McDonald represent their two favorite players. Considering they’re representing their hometown with the Hokies, there wasn’t much competition.

“We definitely want to support them,” Kyle Tucker acknowledged.

Just like any team out there, there are all sorts of personalities on display in the locker room and on the field with fans. Combine that with the college-age factor and it leads to memories that will last a lifetime with fans that will watch their favorite players suit up in the Chicago Maroon and Burnt Orange.

For the Tucker’s, again, it was the McDonald twins, who joined the program earlier this summer. For Richie Gallimore, it was freshman wide receiver Dallan Wright. Charlie, Gallimore’s son, said his favorite was starting quarterback Braxton Burmeister, who sure captured plenty of attention with having that title attached to his name.

For the Dowdy brothers, it was running back Raheem Blackshear, who joked with the West Virginia residents, “I’m bigger than Brock (Hoffman),” who stands at 6-foot-3, 310 pounds compared to Blackshear, who stands a mere 5-foot-9 and weighs 198 pounds.

The Rutgers transfer teased Cameron Dowdy that he “could take him one-on-one.” Dowdy loved it.

“I’ll always remember that,” he said with a laugh.

Tech fans now have 18 days to reposition their tailgate setups with brand new signed memorabilia to show off to incoming guests. When North Carolina rolls into town on Labor Day weekend to take on the Hokies, those tailgates will be just the start to what could be a fun night for Hokies’ fans in Blacksburg.

And on that evening and so on, younger fans like Charlie Gallimore and Evan and Ethan Tucker can put a memory to a name when they hear their favorite Hokies called over the bellowing PA system in Lane Stadium all season long.