Something happens to students when they get into the Campus Center Arena on any given Friday or Saturday to watch our beloved hockey team play. We transform from the studious and upstanding young people that we are into something beast-like.

People who are usually reserved and would never imagine screaming out obscenities in public, are proudly yelling out various versions of the f-word. We taunt people that we have never met before (who are probably pretty decent people) and proudly point out that they’re bitches. We start chanting and clapping and dancing, unconcerned with what others may think of us. We even sing along with Neil Diamond.

In essence, the students of Oswego State become savages. We lose every ounce of etiquette that we have been taught throughout our lives for a few hours in order to root for our Lakers. We don’t care how loud, how crude or how insane we get; if it’s helping the morale of the team, then that’s all that matters in the end.

Even though this might scare some people away from hockey games here at Oswego State (or any sporting event anywhere for that matter), I think this breach of sanity is a good thing. Actually, it’s more than a good thing.

These games are a way for students to release some pent-up stress from the long week of classes and responsibilities. Who doesn’t want the freedom to scream out random things at the top of their lungs after a week of rushing around trying to manage the billion things on their plates? Sign me up!

More importantly, it promotes a sense of community within our vast and sometimes nameless campus. For the few months that is hockey season, students who probably would have never been in the same room before, become compatriots in the name of green and gold. You start to recognize the familiar faces and you feel like you are part of something more than points on the scoreboard.

So yeah, I may go crazy at the hockey games, but if that means that I’m part of something bigger than myself, even for a few hours, then I’ll take it.