Wineka infiltrates 'Crazies' at West Rowan

The West Rowan student section gained an interloper for the big rematch with East Rowan, Salisbury Post columist Mark Wineka tried to blend in with the students to experience first hand the excitement of being a crazie. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

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The West Rowan student section gained an interloper for the big rematch with East Rowan, Salisbury Post columist Mark Wineka tried to blend in with the students to experience first hand the excitement of being a crazie. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

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The West Rowan student section gained an interloper for the big rematch with East Rowan, Salisbury Post columist Mark Wineka tried to blend in with the students to experience first hand the excitement of being a crazie. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

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The East Rowan Crazies which is made of the students dressed as senior citizens for the game with West Rowan. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

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The East Rowan Crazies which is made of the students dressed as senior citizens for the game with West Rowan. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

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The West Rowan student section gained an interloper for the big rematch with East Rowan, Salisbury Post columist Mark Wineka tried to blend in with the students to experience first hand the excitement of being a crazie. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Buy a print

The West Rowan student section gained an interloper for the big rematch with East Rowan, Salisbury Post columist Mark Wineka tried to blend in with the students to experience first hand the excitement of being a crazie. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

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MOUNT ULLA — After paying admission Friday night, I lingered in the gymnasium lobby at West Rowan High and looked for anyone who might be crazy.

I found my prey in Cody Haire and Jake Watson, students who were standing in the doorway to the gymnasium waiting for a break in the girls game before heading toward their seats.

“Are you all Crazies?” I asked, and they quickly confirmed they were. I guessed as much. They were dressed head to toe in heavy camouflage — the theme attire for that night’s boys game against arch rival East Rowan.

I explained my reporting mission: I wanted to infiltrate the West Rowan Crazies and see what they were like, from the inside.

Soon I was walking to the Crazies’ spot in the bleachers in the far corner, just left and under the scoreboard in West’s bandbox of a gym.

I positioned myself in the second row — the front row closest to the floor was reserved for seniors.

“It’s seniority,” freshman Harrison Baucom explained to me. “You have to go with it.”

Minutes before the boys game began, I was surrounded by about 40 kids who, in their camouflage attire, seemed late for a dove hunt.

A girl next to me passed over a cosmetic case, which contained green and black makeup. We smeared it on our faces like war paint, or as though we were hunkered down in a duck blind.

During warmups, the insults were already flying from the Crazies toward the visiting Mustangs, who were going through the layup lines in front of them.

“Junior college,” they shouted at one player.

“Weren’t you on the JV team last week?” was directed at another.

“Why are you stretching?” came one more. “You’re not going to play.”

Across our fair land, high school gymnasiums are filled with students in the stands trying their best to imitate Duke University’s Cameron Crazies, who long ago set a high standard for wit, rowdiness and organization.

At West Rowan High School, the tradition has been passed down, year to year, at least since the school’s first state basketball championship in 1997.

The leaders of the West Rowan Crazies this year are Louis Kraft and Matt Kennedy.

Kraft headed up Friday’s night’s effort in Kennedy’s absence, and he told me the goal of the Crazies is simple: to affect the outcome of the game in West’s favor by creating a home-court advantage.

During school Friday, word spread among the Crazies — it’s actually a school activity club — about the camouflage theme. The message was delivered through a mass text and reiterated in various conversations between classes.

Kraft made sure to get word, too, to West Rowan’s most loyal adult fan, Scottie Clary.

West students were especially looking forward to payback Friday night — East Rowan already had beaten the Falcons twice during the year. The camouflage made sense.

“We had to bring out the big guns tonight,” Kraft told me.

Kraft is a honest critic of the Crazies’ performance this year. “We’ve been up and down,” he said. “When we’re good, we’re really good.”

The Crazies also travel to away games, especially those that are in the county or involve conference teams. Had they ever been thrown out of a game for bad behavior?

“In the past, it has happened,” Kraft confessed, recalling a Davie County game that got out of hand. But he said the Crazies’ reaction that night was justified.

“We try to keep it clean,” he added, with a disclaimer that one can’t always control high school kids.

The Crazies have been known to storm the court in celebration, if circumstances called for it, like a heart-pounding playoff win against Northwest Cabarrus last year.

And I discovered that former Crazies, such as last year’s leader, Alex Yost, like to stop by the group and give them encouragement for the game ahead.

If you’re a Crazie, you’re all in.

“We sweat as much as the players do,” Hunter Teeter said, wilting in all his hunting gear.

Rumors spread among the Crazies before the game that their East Rowan counterparts were going to show up in big numbers.

They did, dressed as old people with spectacles, canes and walkers. The Crazies had quiet admiration for their attire, but also figured that it meant their team would play like old men.

“They’re going to outnumber us tonight,” Kraft said, but he promised the West section would be louder.

“It’s quality, not quantity,” Baucom said.

Given my age, I realized I was probably in the wrong student section, since the East kids looked just like I do. Had they heard I was coming? In addition, I knew the parents of several of the West students near me, such as freshman Baylie Hain.

During a game, the Crazies stand on the bleachers and only allow themselves to sit down during half-time. Friday night was no different.

Only a few minutes into the boys contest, West Rowan built a quick lead, and we were all shouting, “You can’t stop him,” referring to West Rowan star Keshun Sherrill.

By the end of the first quarter, West led 14-2. The Crazies, taking their cues from Kraft, chanted toward the East side, “Only 2. Only 2. Your IQ.”

When East Rowan, after a long drought, finally made a bucket in the second quarter, the chant went up, “One for 20, one for 20.”

Rhythmic clapping accompanied many of our cheers. I found I had no rhythm. We generated considerable noise on opponents’ foul shots and made the overhead sign of the “U” — for Mount Ulla — on West free throws.

As the foul shot dropped in, we lowered our arms in unison and yelled, “You know.”

A couple of times, we Crazies just pointed together at the scoreboard as a silent reminder of West’s big lead.

At halftime, Kraft handed me a little basketball the cheerleaders had tossed into the stands as keepsakes. I will treasure the ball, courtesy of Lashstone Plumbing and Septic.

As you probably know by now, the West Rowan boys never let up, and it just wasn’t a good night for the East Rowan Mustangs.

The Crazies went crazy when Jarvis Morgan slammed home his second follow-up dunk of the evening and gave West a 20-point lead in the third quarter.

Because the game’s outcome seemed decided, even in a good way, some of the steam left the Crazies. Several cell phones came out, and a lot of texting began.

About midway through the final quarter, Kraft dashed toward an exit door and barely made it outside before puking his guts out.

Like a trooper, however, he was back on the bleachers minutes later to lead the Crazies in their final cheer.

I remembered what the young Baucom had told me.

You have to go with it.

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or mwineka@salisburypost.com.