BYU followers cheer on the Cougars throughout match in opposition to UC Irvine within the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Jan. 21, 2022. Brooklynn Jarvis, BYU Photograph
BYU followers get on their ft throughout match in opposition to UC Irvine within the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Jan. 21, 2022. Brooklynn Jarvis, BYU Photograph
When BYU’s Smith Fieldhouse formally opened on Dec. 1, 1951, it was not a volleyball squad that took the ground, however relatively the Cougars males’s basketball crew.
The college’s males’s volleyball program wouldn't make its first look till 1990 — over 38 years later.
On that winter day in 1951, BYU defeated Arizona on the newly laid hardwood. The win proved to be the forerunner to many extra BYU victories within the constructing to return, many in sports activities aside from basketball. The Cougars’ volleyball program has churned out win after win within the Smith Fieldhouse, turning it into one of the vital formidable faculty volleyball venues within the nation.
Opposing groups know simply how troublesome it's to go away Provo with a victory. UCLA and USA Volleyball males’s coach John Speraw is a well-recognized Fieldhouse foe, having performed and coached in opposition to the Cougars there.
“To not be cliché,” Speraw stated about competing within the Smith Fieldhouse. “However it’s a love-hate relationship. I really like the atmosphere. … However it’s actually troublesome to win there, so it’s not my favourite spot on the calendar.”
BYU, however, feels nothing however love for the Smith Fieldhouse.
“It’s an awesome environment,” freshman outdoors hitter Miks Ramanis stated. “Everybody’s cheering you on. Everybody’s serving to you out. I like it.”
Coming into this season, BYU had solely misplaced 11 occasions at dwelling since Shawn Olmstead took over head teaching duties.
To date this season, the Cougars have continued to make use of the Smith Fieldhouse to their achieve, with each certainly one of their wins coming in Provo. Whereas the Smith Fieldhouse retains opposing groups uncomfortable, it does simply the other for the Cougars.
“We apply day-after-day on that flooring,” Olmstead stated. “So there’s plenty of consolation in that. There’s plenty of familiarity with the environment, with the lights, with the roof, with the setting, with the court docket association, et cetera. So all of these issues work to our benefit.”
The obvious benefit the Cougars have when taking part in at house is the reliably raucous environment that BYU followers deliver to Smith Fieldhouse. That atmosphere has come to be anticipated by opposing gamers and coaches when visiting Provo.
“I anticipate there to be traces out the door,” Speraw stated when requested about what he anticipates subsequent month when his crew travels to BYU. “I believe the followers at BYU, in nearly all instances, are as they need to be in American sport. … They’re all very sort and good. They’re respectful. … After which they’re going to go yell as loud as they will, when the whistle blows, so that you can miss your serve.”
Grand Canyon skilled that deafening crowd two weekends in the past when the Antelopes picked up their first-ever wins on the Smith Fieldhouse.
BYU followers get on their ft throughout match in opposition to UC Irvine within the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Jan. 21, 2022.
Brooklynn Jarvis, BYU Photograph
“Our guys really actually get pleasure from taking part in (there),” GCU coach Matt Werle stated. “With over 3,000 (followers), it’s so particular. It’s such a tremendous volleyball atmosphere that for among the guys on our crew, that’s their favourite place to play.”
Earlier than going to BYU, Werle tried to simulate the gang noise his crew would expertise in Provo.
“We prep for it with very, very loud music in our apply health club,” Werle stated. His crew bought simply what they'd anticipated.
“The scholars behind our service line have been chirping in our guys’ ears,” he stated. “When it bought to essentially essential factors of the match, the gang noise from the encircling components of the health club nearly diluted what these college students have been saying. … It's loopy loud.”
BYU’s volleyball program doesn’t simply get pleasure from the advantages of the Smith Fieldhouse on the day of a match. It additionally helps entice expertise to return play for the varsity.
Sophomore outdoors hitter Kupono Browne says the Smith Fieldhouse and the assist of BYU’s followers performed an element in his switch from Stanford to Provo.
“(Different) colleges are able to bringing out a crowd,” he stated. “However they'll by no means deliver out a crowd fairly as vivacious, fairly as energized as BYU brings with the Smith Fieldhouse.”
Coaches that compete in opposition to the Cougars, like Werle, acknowledge that the Smith Fieldhouse is a good recruiting software for BYU.
“There’s no purpose why somebody wouldn’t need to go play in entrance of that crowd with that assist,” he stated.
The Smith Fieldhouse offers a wide range of assessments for opposing coaches and groups.
“Going (there) and getting a win is tough to do as a result of there’s simply multifaceted challenges,” Speraw stated. “The key one is the emotional raise that the gang offers to their crew. It’s one thing that simply makes them higher and so they’re already good yearly. So that you are available in with some vital challenges forward of you.”
The Cougars return to the pleasant confines of the Smith Fieldhouse this weekend, hoping to get that additional increase of their particular enviornment, with matches in opposition to Concordia Friday and Saturday.