Penn State’s Hockey Student Section, The Roar Zone, Reflects on the Impacts of the Hockey Season Without Fans in Attendance
When it was announced there would be no public attendance at Penn State sporting events, those who make up the Penn State hockey’s student section, The Roar Zone, didn’t expect to miss the atmosphere of Pegula Ice Arena as much as they did.
Members of The Roar Zone flock to Pegula Ice Arena every season to attend games and club meetings. Due to the pandemic, in person events are not permitted by the university, and the men’s and women’s 2020–2021 hockey seasons are being played in an empty arena.
Lexy Leidlein, an avid attendee of Penn State men’s hockey games with the Roar Zone, said that she misses the environment of Pegula Ice Arena when the team is doing well during a game, calling it an “adrenaline rush.”
“I miss the chants the Roar Zone did,” Maddie Csernica, a fellow Roar Zone member, agreed. “How loud we could get the Peg, and seeing the opponents faces. The Roar Zone is 100% a force to be reckoned with.”
For many involved with the Roar Zone, it’s not just the environment of Pegula and going to games that they miss. It’s the in person events and activities they get to do as an organization that they miss most of all.
“We’ll usually have a cookout, we’ll usually have a tailgate,” Dan Greiss, President of The Roar Zone, said. “Just ways to get to know each other… we really couldn’t even reach out to the freshman because we usually do that at the involvement fair… since there was no involvement fair really… it’s hard, it’s really hard.”
Despite not being able to gather in person, one thing The Roar Zone has been doing to keep everyone involved is having group Zoom meetings to watch the games.
“A member of the exec board has Big Ten Plus, so they just put on a group Zoom so we can all watch the game together and still talk and everything else. So it’s still like we’re ‘together,’ over Zoom,” Ella Lutz said.
The members say Zoom has really allowed the organization to, in part, keep up with events that would typically happen during the season — like the much anticipated first meeting of the year.
“Our first meeting of the year is always a really big deal,” Greiss said. “We’ll usually pack our room in Pegula. We always have two players and Coach Gadowsky come.”
Leidlein recalls two of the freshman players coming to the meeting this year. The group played games like Quiplash and Among Us during their time together, and had the opportunity to talk with the players and hang out.
“We get to personally meet the players, talk to them,” Lutz said. “Just getting to know them on a personal level, which also makes the game more exciting, because (you) know the guys personally who are playing, which is really fun.”
Greiss said that this year has been “really tough,” but given the current circumstances, he expected it.
Many other Roar Zone members echoed Greiss’ sentiments. While there are many aspects to miss, being able to gather as individual students and become an entire horde of hockey fans is what they miss the most.
“The student section there is like family, at least the people who go all the time. I met some of my best friends through it,” Jess Thomas said. “I miss that atmosphere — I know the whole Penn State hockey community even beyond the students is really close knit. We’re friends with a lot of the adults who are regulars at the games, and I just miss that community most.”
