The Hound Pound is the student run cheer section for athletic teams at the University of Indianapolis. Its mission is to bring UIndy students together through participating and supporting athletics organizations on campus. They decide themes, chants and organize events to promote UIndy athletics and interaction on campus, according to sports management graduate student Jessie Benner. Senior sports marketing major Brandon Zehner said that he and the athletics office have worked together in order to create a larger presence for the Hound Pound on campus.
“We want to get more students to go to games. Obviously football is more relevant, but we see people go for the first half and leave. They don’t have any real desire to stay,” Zehner said. “We’re trying to get more people to go to basketball, volleyball, soccer and everything. So we’re getting all these themes put together and trying to get pizza there and giving out T-shirts so more people are likely to attend.”
Benner said that the group is more than just a student section for the university, it tries to bring UIndy students together in other ways. Her role on the organization is to help work with the athletic department to choose which games would be best to promote heavily for each sport. Benner said the main goal is different as Hound Pound wants to get students more involved on campus to help support our athletes while also supporting each other.
“The biggest benefit of being a part of Hound Pound is it gets you to go out and meet people on campus you wouldn’t normally meet and see. Its people who aren’t in your major, people who you don’t have classes with,” Zehner said. “You just interact more. And I think that if you all meet before a game and think of things you can do such as cheers during the game you can support all your teams and it creates a better environment.”
The club has eight main leaders, senior sports management major Maddi Weiss who is the president, Benner and marketing major Bobby Kaufman who share the role of vice president and treasurer, Zehner and senior content marketing major Trevor Trowbridge are the student section leaders. The leaders for Registered Student Organization Outreach are nursing major Nick Kotcher and human biology major Dawson Labaw. Zehner said that some examples of themes they have planned or done in the past would be a blackout night, Sunday study break, costume night, galaxy, Star Wars night and beach night.
“People will complain that there is nothing to do on campus while there is a soccer game going on. It’s better than just sitting around in your dorm doing nothing or sitting there playing Fortnite,” Zehner said. “You’re able to meet people, get involved and when you meet people at sporting events, you can go out to parties with them afterwards or do whatever you do with your friends.”
If any students are interested in joining Hound Pound they can contact Weiss at weissm@uindy.edu for more information.
