Negativity and the Hokies don't mix

I don't normally post any new topics or blogs of my own on here but I'd like to address some of the negativity that I've noticed by a very vocal part of our fan base. Just like a lot of you, I grew up playing sports. Anything I could play I wanted to sign up for. Some sports I did okay at, and in others I wasn't very talented at all. But the one thing I can say that I learned from my coaches was the power of a positive mental attitude. Now, that doesn't mean that if you stay positive things are always going to go your way. In fact, the purpose of having a positive mental attitude is so when things are really going wrong, you can gut it out and make it through. I've carried that mentality with me through 15 years in the military as well. Countless challenging schools, and multiple combat deployments and I'm telling you people, it's not just a cliche, it works. But when folks start getting all negative and pointing fingers and blaming this person or that person, it's like a cancer in an organization and it can ruin even the best ones. Nothing good ever comes from negativity. The reason I wanted to write this post is mostly because of what I saw and heard at the Duke game. I coach my son's peewee football team and we had a bye that weekend so we decided that we would make the trip from Fort Campbell to Blacksburg which is about seven hours give or take. Not wanting to drive all night Friday, we left super early on Saturday morning, and drove in. After being on the road all day my son was so excited to finally get inside Lane Stadium and watch the Hokies that he loves with his entire heart. We're from Lynchburg so as you can imagine, Logan Thomas is his favorite player. I don't need to tell you all the rest of the game story. Just like every one of you, we were stunned and extremely disappointed. What made me absolutely sick to my stomach however, was the way the people around us were acting. Some of the things they were saying about Logan would embarrass the guys that I work with and we hear some pretty rough language. It was like we found the most fair weather, negative part of Hokie Nation and sat right in the middle of it. The good news was, half of them left about half way through the 4th Qtr. The ones that remained stayed consistent in their negativity though. "Beamer has to go, this is on him, for letting the offense go so long" Logan Thomas has single handily ruined OUR program" blah blah blah. We finally left after regulation expired but we watched Duke in their victory formation mostly because we had just driven 7 hours and was in no hurry to get back to the car but also because I wanted my son to be able to spend every second he could inside Lane. Afterwards, we walked around campus and I took him to the War Memorial and he wanted a new Hokie Bird so we went to Campus Emporium. While we were in there you couldn't get away from the negativity. It was the worst I've ever seen. And we live in the heart of SEC land so thats saying something! He finally said "daddy, I'm ready to go. These people aren't good Hokies fans" I couldn't help but agree. That was a sad day for me. As much as I love Virginia Tech, and as bad I hate to see them lose, the worst part of that entire trip was that my seven year old had to see that from our own fans. I've told him his entire life that the difference in Hokies and everyone else is that we support our team whether they're 12-0 or 0-12. Well, a lot of people made a liar out of me that night. And then came Boston College. The negative comments reached an all time high. I've actually had to start blocking people on twitter and Facebook. It's gotten that bad. And now I'm seeing it on this site. There's nothing wrong with being frustrated people but at the end of the day, none of you are on the field, none of you are playing or coaching. And it's probably a safe bet that the majority of you have never played or coached on a D-1 football team. And if you have I'm positive none of you were mistake free. So I'm asking you to try to support our team win or lose. Remember that wins and losses are always going to happen, it's how you act during those wins and losses that make the difference. We're setting an example for younger generations on how Virginia Tech fans act. Frank Beamer is our head coach and Logan Thomas is our Quarterback, and that's not going to change. No matter how convinced some of you are that if it did change we'd never lose a game we shouldn't ever again. Go Hokies!