Carolina Fever builds Tar Heel spirit
Student group Carolina Fever ensures that the stands are always filled at athletic events.
The most anticipated men’s college basketball game of the season is approaching this weekend when Carolina faces Duke, and there is a certain group of Tar Heels who will ensure the Dean Smith Center is as loud as it can be – the student section.
“I know our fans will show up and be loud,” said Lydia Waddell, a junior business and sports administration major. “I am ready for the Dean Dome to be rocking with a super rowdy crowd.”
The effort will be led by Carolina Fever, the student section leaders at Carolina. The group’s members are committed to building school spirit and ensuring student sections at sporting events are packed to support Carolina student-athletes.
Carolina Fever is a rewards-based program for students to encourage them to attend varsity sporting events. When students attend “fever” games and log into the GoHeels app on their smartphone to ping their location, they earn points within the Carolina Fever system to earn tickets for basketball and football games.
When students arrive early at “fever” games, they can also receive free giveaways of items, such as bucket hats, flags and rally towels.
The student organization releases a schedule at the beginning of each month with the upcoming “fever” games so that students know when they can earn points. Students who are in the top 150 in fever points receive two guaranteed phase one men’s basketball tickets to each home game in the Dean Smith Center. For the home basketball game against Duke, the top 150 students will receive only one ticket. Students in the top 200 in fever points receive one guaranteed ticket to every home football game at Kenan Stadium.
“My favorite thing about Carolina Fever is the community. We have several hundred students who are passionate about attending events for every varsity team on campus and will show up for multiple events every week to support all teams that wear Carolina blue,” says John Hankinson, co-president of Carolina Fever. “It’s a great group of students who are passionate about all things UNC sports, through the good and bad, week in and week out.”
Among that community is Blaise Shiver, a junior majoring in human and organizational leadership development and one of Carolina’s top 150-point earners.
“I participate in Carolina Fever because I love Carolina athletics and want to support [the teams] in any way possible,” he said. “I love Carolina Fever because of the opportunity that it gives me to attend so many games, especially football and basketball.”
Whether the competition is Dorrance Field, Karen Shelton Stadium, Anderson Stadium, Koury Natatorium, Boshamer Stadium, Kenan Stadium or the Dean Smith Center, Carolina Fever guarantees that there will be a stadium with fans sporting Carolina blue.
“I’ll go to a field hockey game on a Thursday afternoon in September and see dozens of people that I know in the stands and even more having to stand outside the stadium because the seating filled up,” says John Hankinson, a junior economics and computer science double major.
Carolina Fever and the student section are there to support the teams at all Carolina sporting events, and the student-athletes, Waddell says, are taking notice.
“What I love most is seeing how our support helps the teams we are cheering for. One of my favorite sports to watch is our women’s basketball team because you can tell they appreciate us being there,” says Waddell, who serves as Carolina Fever’s co-president. “The team plays so much better when they can draw energy from our electric student section, and [head coach] Courtney Banghart thanks us for coming after every game.”
