Red and Blue Crew ready to make noise

Seventeen students attended a meeting of the fan club last night. The members of the Red and Blue Crew, a student organization created to support Penn basketball, were noticeably out of costume at their second official meeting last night in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. There were no faces with red and blue paint, no "Puck Frinceton" T-shirts and no Dunphys-on-sticks -- just a group of average-looking Penn students discussing the best ways to promote spirit at the Palestra. The hour-long meeting was attended by 17 students, along with featured guests Michael Jordan, David Klatsky and Diana Caramanico from the Penn basketball teams. Jordan and Klatsky spoke about the need for a large and loud Palestra crowd at games. "Fan support is really important because of the intimidation factor in the way our gym is set up," Jordan said. Meanwhile, Caramanico noted that while overall attendance has been up for Penn women's basketball games, student attendance has remained sparse. "We've gotten a lot more support this year than in the past," Caramanico said. "But we don't have that many students coming to our games." The Red and Blue Crew attempted to address Caramanico's concerns last night by considering ways to promote women's basketball at Penn -- specifically at the Harvard-Penn showdown at the Palestra on February 26. The Crimson and the Quakers are currently tied for first in the Ivy League at 5-0. Later this week, prizes will be announced for a raffle that will be held at the Harvard-Penn game. Additionally, concession promotions are also being considered for the game. The other major focus of the meeting was the distribution of T-shirts. Penn Coordinator of Basketball Operations Gil Beverly, who oversees the club, ordered between 700 and 800 Red and Blue Crew shirts to be distributed at no charge on a first-come, first-served basis to the 1,200 Quakers season ticket holders. More shirts will be available if demand is high enough. The Red and Blue Crew discussed encouraging students to wear the shirts to every game to create a sea of blue in the stands. However, no final decision was reached. The Red and Blue Crew adopted its name at the group's first official meeting in December and publicized last night's meeting with fliers and announcements at the Palestra last month. "Anyone who sits in the student section is a part of the Red and Blue Crew, just by definition," Beverly said. "This body sitting here [at the meeting] is what we're going to call the Red and Blue Crew Steering Committee." The Red and Blue Crew has not yet elected an executive committee, but the club does have a three-pronged mission: increasing student attendance at the Palestra, making the arena's atmosphere more enjoyable for fans and making the Palestra more intimidating for visiting players. According to Beverly, nearly half of the students in attendance last night were not at the first meeting. "That was one of the goals -- to get some new people energized," Beverly said. "I think there was a lot of positive energy in the room." Red and Blue Crew members also believed the meeting was a success. "We got some more things organized -- specifically, the T-shirts and the plans for the women's game," Engineering sophomore Wayne Davis said.

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