The Colonial Crazies club at Robert Morris University has begun its first major year of operation strong with a packed student section during every game. The club began during the fall 2011 football season after receiving the financial approval of the Student Government Association. The Crazies’ first appearance this year was at a volleyball game.

Founded on the basis of inspiring the athletes to perform to their greatest potential by the support and encouragement of the fans, the Colonial Crazies host fun activities to draw more students to the games, such as giving out free T-shirts. To find the Crazies at a game, look no further than the student section

The officers of the Crazies meet with RMU senior associate athletic director and the clubs’ RMU staff advisor, Marty Galosi, once a week to discuss ideas for new things to do at upcoming games.

The club’s main focus is on football, men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s hockey. The group officers are president Lee Kunkel, junior, vice president Chas Roth, junior, treasurer Chris Lockhart, junior, and secretary Justin Buddai, sophomore.

One upcoming club activity will take place at the men’s basketball game against Long Island University on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. The game will be in the Sewall Center with coverage by FOX Sports Regional. The Colonial Crazies will be at the game to keep the crowd on its feet and to hopefully hand out a few more shirts, as well.

According to Kunkel, the 70 T-shirts the club thought would take an entire school year to hand out have already run out, but more are on the way.

Other future club happenings will be the appearance of Weslye Saunders and Emmanuel Sanders appearing during the half-time show at the ACC Championship Game on Jan. 26, and a black history event on Feb. 26.

The club currently boasts 120 students that have signed up for e-mails on activities to participate in during games, and it is quickly growing. Kunkel hopes that by the end of the year, the amount of students in the stands that are cheering at games will increase from one-fourth of the total attendees to three-fourths.

Kunkel’s expectation is well founded. He, as well as Roth and Alan Buehler, junior, were one of the many who assisted in helping to begin the rebirth of the group in 2010.

Kunkel’s personal motivation to participate in helping to begin the group came from the 2009 NCAA basketball tournament in Providence, Rhode Island. Despite the game being away, the student section for RMU was the liveliest it had ever been all season.

“So far we’ve had a lot of success, but we definitely want to grow, and get more students to all of the games because college athletes really thrive off energy and [an] enthusiastic crowd. We want to give our team the best home field advantages we can get them,” Kunkel declared.

The Colonial Crazies was officially re-created at the beginning of the 2011 school year by Fred Harris, the head of marketing for RMU sports. He especially wants to thank Marty Galosi and Coach Andrew Toole, head coach of the men’s basketball team, for their assistance in the recreation of the club.

Harris’ inspiration for the restoration of the club stems from his own experiences at RMU. Harris had attended a game for Robert Morris’ lacrosse team and saw how the cheering of the students instilled the energy in the team to win the game.

As a result of this event, Harris aims to make the club as large as possible in order to continue to strongly encourage the student athletes at to turn the scoreboard in their favor by hard work and determination.

“The Colonial Crazies is the cornerstone of Robert Morris’ athletic success,” stated Harris.