Guidelines for The Children of Yost
Since we know that there will be at least two more hockey homes games this season (for the first round of the BTT), here is a fun little doc about what the Children of Yost does:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10pwVh0oqxkaR8sNO2ZM_qPYNRuKGf1tNcGAVw5BJnfE/mobilebasic
Enjoy!
February 25th, 2024 at 5:45 PM ^
Is this a manifesto?
February 25th, 2024 at 6:03 PM ^
Are you the ncaa?
February 25th, 2024 at 6:17 PM ^
Gonna have to get a new username
February 25th, 2024 at 9:41 PM ^
Yes, but is it the manifesto?
February 25th, 2024 at 5:46 PM ^
Thanks! I did not know the part about asking ‘how-much-time-is-left?’ before the 1 minute warning, but we always say Thank You!
February 25th, 2024 at 5:59 PM ^
The Chicago Wolves fans do the same thing. I’ve been to very few hockey games - I thought all fans do this!
February 25th, 2024 at 8:13 PM ^
I've used this chant for potty training my kid. One day he will go to Yost and be like... "HEY!"
February 26th, 2024 at 6:33 AM ^
We are season ticket holders who used to be students and we have always wondered why the people around us don't join in as we're yelling "How Much Time is Left". I feel like I'm leading by example for the adults around us.
February 26th, 2024 at 9:08 AM ^
When I was growing up, I would watch Flint Generals hockey at the, previously known as, IMA Sports Arena.
My sister and I would say things after an announcement was made, such as "*Insert other team name here* at full strength!", we would reply, "And they still suck!".
Another one we did was "1 minute remaining in the *insert period here*", we would reply, "Who cares?". It caught on pretty quickly and others would start doing it.
Now, when I go to the Flint Firebirds game, I hear the fans say these things. Makes my heart grow fonder.
February 26th, 2024 at 10:38 AM ^
Back in the late 90s, early 2000s, if we were in a big game (usually against State, but could be another critical game), and the team was up by a few goals in the third period, the announcer would throw in a "You're Welcome!" to thunderous cheers and an appropriate "Announcer, Sieve" chant.
On his last home game he announced before retiring he said "No, Thank You!" and awesome moment to be at.
Glad to see a lot of the cheers are the same as when I was a student. I took my kids to the game on Saturday and it was hard to hear the chants from where we were seated. The Cee yah Chant used to have a rythm to it, with each word pointed out and Douchbag extended. Looks like it has been condensed.
It was wierd to hear the piped in music. Don't think Yost needs it.
I miss Score-O (pushing the young kid forward and the guy way back), the band playing spinning wheel, Space Odyssy playing before the team came back on the ice for one of the periods, and the band director dancing. But glad to see the students come up with new stuff.
State's now coach has brother's that also played hockey. One played for Northern Michigan and we'd chant Florence every time he was on the ice. Nerdy and Childish, a goof mix for the COY.
February 26th, 2024 at 11:03 AM ^
Glen Williams was a saint of a man. Still miss his voice at Yost after all these years, not to mention his early-morning bird hikes at Camp Michigania.
February 25th, 2024 at 6:02 PM ^
Going to get Old Man Yelling at Clouds for a second...
What made the Michigan hockey student section so great for so long was the fact that there wasn't a name or an identity, there wasn't clear leadership, and there wasn't anything written down. It was organic. You came, you learned, you helped invent new things, and you taught as needed.
The idea of a codified document feels... unnecessarily official.
February 25th, 2024 at 6:05 PM ^
The first rule about Children of Yost is that we do not *talk* about Children of Yost.
February 26th, 2024 at 3:36 AM ^
Please join for a walk .. we can examine the health of the crop.. together…
February 26th, 2024 at 8:59 AM ^
We have season tickets to football, basketball, and hockey.
I feel the same way about the COY, Bando. When MSU was at Yost a couple weeks ago, there was a small MSU contingent, but they were LOUD. COY should have quickly and easily shut that down. A simple "Go! Blue" chant would do, or covering up "Go Green. Go White." with "Can't Read, Can't Write." Also, what the COY are doing should be more situational and specific to individual opponents and players.
The Maize Rage is somewhat better, IMO, but needs to be more organic as well. I have a separate rant about the Athletic Department and how it impacts the Maize Rage that I want to write this morning.
The student section for football desperately needs to get more organized. Do the wave. Great. But do it either after the game is decided or at least when Michigan is on defense. And do anything possible to engage more of the general crowd.
[Old Man Stuff/]
February 26th, 2024 at 11:48 AM ^
I was at Senior Night on Saturday and it struck me that they were recognizing the CoY seniors and I was just thinking "Dang, that would have been very awkward." back in the late 1990s.
If you're officially recognized and sanctioned by the Athletic Department, they have a modicum of control over you. This can be a good thing and a bad thing, but it definitely flattens the presentation a bit, if nothing else.
February 26th, 2024 at 1:47 PM ^
Part of me died when I went to Yost for an early-season game years ago and saw Athletic Department people giving students "Children of Yost" t-shirts from a tent in front of the arena. All issues with the name aside, you're absolutely correct–never take a name, never accept oversight, never hand over power, never create leadership or traceable power structures. Also, never give The Victors any more choreography than the fist.
Athletics tried to put the clamp down student section stuff when I was in school. They sent email surveys, held focus group meetings, the whole nine yards. I went to one of them because they promised dinner and a Yost backstage tour. It proved to be great entertainment. Veiled threats were made, alternate/bad plans put forth, more or less constituting a blueprint for the AD and Yost security to use ticket privileges and surveillance and narcing (er, self-policing) to assert soft power over the students. Our cumulative response was basically "thanks for the free dinner, loved the arena tour, but no." Figured they were just biding their time and student interest/saltiness to wane, and indeed they were.
February 25th, 2024 at 6:03 PM ^
Do we know what dates the first round games are?
February 25th, 2024 at 7:08 PM ^
Better question is when do tickets go on sale?
February 25th, 2024 at 7:23 PM ^
I just checked. not yet ; )
We still have a series next weekend at Minnesota, who haven't been spectacular lately, and we are three points behind them.
February 26th, 2024 at 9:02 AM ^
Last year, it was the Monday morning after the end of the regular season. If the same, then it would be next Monday.
Official capacity is only 5,800. So it isn't like there's a lot of inventory to move.
February 25th, 2024 at 7:03 PM ^
In other hockey news, Red Wings are in Chicago (leading 1-0 after the first).
Chris Chelios had a big ceremony pre-game as the Hawks retired #7.
Patrick Kane was also honored pre-game. Really cool video of his days with the Hawks was played on the Jumbotron and the fans gave him a standing ovation
NHL Network is showing highlights, if you’re interested in catching highlights later.
February 25th, 2024 at 9:17 PM ^
Patrick Kane scores the game winner in OT!!
Asks crowd: “how you like me now?”🤣
February 25th, 2024 at 7:35 PM ^
For the youngs, the phone chant started because (I know this is hard to imagine) people used to use their cell phones mostly to call each other. These things would ring with obnoxious loudness.
In quiet times most of the building could hear one go off. So we'd tell the goalie who it was and what she said.
February 25th, 2024 at 7:51 PM ^
It actually started because you could hear the phone ring in the press box throughout the arena. IIRC, they would call up there from the PA/scorers' box, often during play. Our seats starting in the mid-90s were right underneath it, the sound was the classic old metal bell "brrrrrrrrrrrring," clear as day ringing off the metal ceiling.
February 26th, 2024 at 10:47 AM ^
Cool to learn that. I started going in fall 98, and I remember it being kids that had cell phones that did it.
Also agree with the organic feel and having to go there to learn the chants. It was such a fun time to go. I remember being in awe of the upper classmen who seemed to know everything about the players and all the chants they'd lead and come up with. Bubba was this Icon to me because of the student section (I didn't follow them before I arrived so missed the two Championship runs and had to learn the players and chants and loved every minute of it.)
February 26th, 2024 at 11:38 AM ^
The students actually tried doing the original version of that chant right after Yost was renovated in 2012-13. They had left the phone number on the phone at the scorer's table and I wrote it down while reffing broomball one night. Sadly, you can't hear it from the student section so the setup didn't work.
February 26th, 2024 at 1:37 PM ^
That's using your power for good.
February 25th, 2024 at 9:43 PM ^
It pre-dates cell phones. It used to be the phone in the press box that could be heard.
Edit: Didn’t see Bando’s response. Spot on.
February 25th, 2024 at 7:59 PM ^
What are the words to the “oh how I hate ohio state chant”?
February 25th, 2024 at 9:58 PM ^
Oh, how I hate, Ohio State
Oh, How I hate Ohio State
Dude, I want to kill that freaking buckeye!
Oh how I hate Ohio State!
Oh, how I hate,Ohio State
Dude I hate Ohio State!
Yes I hate the Freaking Buckeyes!
Now let’s go THE Michigan!
Now when the BLUE, Come after you!
You better run and hide away!
Than you better find a bowl game
that you can actually WINNNNNNN
from what i remember
February 25th, 2024 at 10:26 PM ^
As a Cornell alumnus, I'm a little disappointed there is no Big Red origin story or even mention here.
But as a Michigan alumnus and a fully formed grown person, I don't really care. To hell with Notre Dame and beat Minnesota!
February 25th, 2024 at 10:46 PM ^
My observation is the COY and Hockey Band have had a down year. The size of the maize and blue Canadian flag is a metaphor for how the COY have shrunk in inventiveness and saltiness. The nadir was the performance during the MSU series, where Go Green chants were not drowned out.
The hockey band was much better early in the season. After the new year, they seem more intent on showing off their choreography (hey, look at us do the trombone snake thing!) rather than providing the soundtrack that sets the crowd on fire. The preprogrammed set list doesn't reflect the ebb and flow of the game. And they need to be heard often enough that we can relieve the deejay of duty permanently.
The Notre Dame series was a decent rebound from some lackluster COY efforts, but we need more during the postseason. As far as the band goes, I'm not asking to go full-rogue Stanford Cardinal, but I prefer to hear the lulls eliminated and the crowd driven by the music.
While I appreciate the fact that the COY still outclass all other B1G fans, the bar has been set high and the current performance has room for improvement. I'm personally rooting for another series against the Domers to bring out the creative juices (and the bile).
February 25th, 2024 at 11:44 PM ^
I was at Yost this weekend and while I know it's spring break, the student section did feel pretty off. Also, agree that the band felt really disjointed.
All in all, Yost didn't really feel all that much like Yost, starting with whatever that was over in the student end. Too much dancing/choreography across the board, didn't appear all that intense. Back in the day, you'd feel like the paint was going to peel off the walls when the students did just about anything.
Also, missing you, Score-O. Sorry, a sled race just doesn't cut it.
February 26th, 2024 at 9:08 AM ^
I mostly agree.
The MMB, Hockey Band, and Basketball Band all do share one challenge: The gameday experience is so programmed and managed that there's a lot they don't control.
I do like that JP is very quick to get the Temptation theme going after a good save. For hockey, that results in COY and fans doing the "goalie! sieve!" thing, which is slightly more creative than the football "You suck" (which I also like).
Even so, there is a script they must follow for certain parts of the game and decisions made not at the band level regarding who is playing what and when (DJ vs. Band vs. replays vs. other scoreboard/screen stuff).
But all that scripting is why the COY need to be organized, creative, and most of all LOUD.
February 26th, 2024 at 9:32 AM ^
A bit of the soul of that arena died when they reportedly banned the hockey band leader from dancing. Dancer, sieve, dancer, sieve was a classic chant late in the 3rd period of a big win.
February 26th, 2024 at 9:38 AM ^
There was a change in hockey band leadership before the 2005-6 season. The new hockey band director (then the assistant MMB director) didn't really want to dance, and his boss, the Director of Bands, was already looking for an opportunity to get rid of it. The view was that the director needed to be more professional, as it was a role that was going to be concretized as a duty for one of the MMB directors, and a dancing band director was not what they wanted on TV. And thus it was so.
February 26th, 2024 at 10:25 AM ^
The fear was that someone would "download it to their video card."
And yet everyone involved has had very successful careers. QED.
February 26th, 2024 at 11:07 AM ^
The very-PG explanation of not wanting to see a band director's khakis while he danced, gosh, I wish I'd brought a tape recorder.
February 26th, 2024 at 1:29 PM ^
I thought it was just that the new director didn't want to do it. Didn't know there was a group above him pushing to ban it because we are too posh a group to do a silly dance.
What I liked about it was there were rules for it. We didn't get a dance if we were losing. And a tight 1 goal game might still not get you a dance. Game had to be "won" to get a dance from the director. It made it feel special, like the team and fans had to earn it.
Also said in another comment but completely agree with you that Score-o was a million times better than the sled race. Move em up, Move em back. Heroes were made on the ice. Still remember watching the 98 team come back to celebrate their championship, and one of the players picked up the puck with his stick and threw the puck down the ice to score on the Score-o. Crazy
February 27th, 2024 at 5:38 AM ^
Didn’t see this in the manifesto… on the VERY rare occasion that Michigan scored 11 goals and we thus ran out of fingers, we used to hold up a shoe for the goal count instead. (Presumably because we were using our toes to count now too?)