Hacke and his group of six students make up the cheering section known as Deon's Butlers, making their desire for a primo perch in Beaver Stadium understandable. Other familiar cheering sections were represented, too, including Posluszny's Posse, Linebacker U and King's Court. Lydell's Army and D-Wheels Express arrived later, and a new group of State College Area High School alumni supporting freshman wideout Jordan Norwood was also among the first to set up.
Most of the groups had previously camped out pregame on Friday nights, but once the first tents arrived around 6 p.m. Sunday, the alert was sent out to other front-row standbys.
"We weren't going to come up until Monday, but a friend called me and said people were up there already," Mike Petry (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said. "We got on our bikes and rode over right away."
Staking out the gates for front-row seats isn't something any of these groups did on a whim, as each has put into motion a well-coordinated game plan for the week. Provisions had been stocked, sleeping bags and towels lined the tent floors, and the all-important schedules detailing which members are to man the spot at which times were prominently posted.
Many of the campers were preparing for a week of midterms, too, like Linebacker U member Tom Frame (freshman-information science and technology), who was reading up on his C++ for an exam in his Computer Science 101 (Introduction to Algorithmic Processes) class tomorrow.
"I have all my stuff for classes; there's no time to go back to get it," Frame said. "There's a core group of guys that will always be here."
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