Red Sea
When college players are asked how they won the game most of them would say “We could not have done it without our fans and our student section.” All colleges have their specific student section like the Cameron Crazies for Duke or the ZouCrew for the University of Missouri. At Bradley University they have the Red Sea. The Red Sea is a student-run organization promoting Bradley Athletics.
The Red Sea began a long time ago but the organization fell out of existence in recent years. It was like this until four years ago when a couple of Bradley University freshmen decided they wanted to build the organization back up from the ground up. When the four freshmen started building the Red Sea back up they ran into a problem. The Red Sea was run by the Bradley Athletic Department. This would not be a problem if the Athletic Department did not allow it to collapse. After two years of rebuilding two of the freshmen stuck with the organization and were able to move the Red Sea away from the Athletic Department to a student-run organization. Anthony Sperando, the president of the Red Sea says: “Now we have built a strong foundation for it to keep it going for the future.” This went into full effect this past year when Anthony Sperando and Joey Muting took over the Red Sea as President and Vice President of the now student-run Red Sea. Now Bradley students on the executive board and coordinator board run, promote, and organize everything the Red Sea offers for Bradley University Athletics.
Unlike the Cameron Crazies which is the Duke Blue Devils student section for only the men’s basketball team, the Red Sea works with and cheers for all of Bradley Athletics. For all of the Bradley sports the Red Sea promotes the games through sources such as; facebook, instagram, and twitter to host giveaways at sporting events, to help find ways to improve connection with students and student athletes.
Anthony Sperando, the president of the Red Sea and one of the people who helped rebuild the Red Sea and turn it into a student-run organization, wanted to recreate the Red Sea for a strong fan base and an outlet for school spirit. Over two years, when the Red Sea moved from Athletic run to student-run, the amount of students signed up to join the Red Sea has jumped from 347 students to now 367 students and each year the organization continues to grow.
The Red Sea started out promoting basketball games and has taken off with the attendance of students at games especially basketball has moved up. This past basketball year the Bradley Braves had the youngest team in the NCAA and were expected to be worse than the previous year. This did not mean a thing for the students though. This year the Red Sea broke the student attendance record, which was well over a thousand students, at the Bradley vs Illinois State game this winter. The average of students attending every home game has moved from about 200 to about 300 students. The goal of the Red Sea was not to just boost the student attendance but to to make students feel apart of something.
“Last year the organization was restructured and since then huge improvements have been made,” says Courtney Schaunberg and Jennifer Cundiff, executive members who have both been apart of the Red Sea for the past two years. This way each of the members can exceed in leadership positions and really improve on those quality,” said Anthony Sperando, President of the Red Sea.
“The Red Sea was restructured so then each executive members would have the opportunity to be a part of the organization and make a difference. “This way everyone could really be hands on and understand their position so things could run more efficiently,” said Jennifer Cundiff, head women’s basketball coordinator. Jennifer also mentions, “The Shea Brigade started last year. All the members stood behind the goal to help cheer on the soccer team. “The homecoming game this year was a really great atmosphere.”
When Jennifer is talking about the Shea Brigade she is also talking about the Red Sea. A couple of students on the Red Sea board and their class created the Shea Brigade last year for the student section at Shea Stadium. The Shea Brigade is only for soccer and is run by the Red Sea. It has grown since it was first introduced last year and the students. The soccer team really enjoys having fans cheer them on. Since the Shea Brigade is placed behind the net near the highway, the students have a chance to cheer on the Bradley goalie for one half and for the second half they get a chance to get in the head of the opposing goalie. “This makes it enjoyable because we are almost on the field,” says soccer fan Ali Krane.
The Red Sea has made two huge changes by becoming a student-run organization and by creating the Shea Brigade but that is not all they want to do for the students. The Red Sea hopes to keep growing the organization. They want to make the experience for the students amazing along with the student athletes. For the athletes, they want the students to make a big difference at games in hope to help their team to a victory. They also hope to build their executive and coordinator boards within the organization. Right now the organization has about twenty students working behind the scenes in hopes to give the students a joyful time at games. They believe this is not enough and want to expand the organization to all of Bradley’s athletics. The Red Sea hopes to grow to about fifty students working behind the scenes to help all the students in Bradley have a memorable four years of fun at all athletics events no matter the outcome of the game or season. The Red Sea is a student-run organization promoting Bradley athletics and they hope to grow to be able to cover all of Bradley’s athletics and continue to grow their organization in the future. The Red Sea has not only impacted the Athletics but also the University as a whole.
By: Andrew Vest and Anna Foley