Why ZonaZoo is the best student section in the nation

The University of Arizona is the best school on the planet. One of the thousands of things that makes it so great is our school spirit.  Better known as “ZonaZoo”, the University of Arizona’s student section is the best in the nation, and if you don’t believe me just check out the NCSSA #LoudAndProud 2015 Student Section of the Year Award, it has our name written all over it (literally).

The school spirit at the University of Arizona runs deeper and farther than the city of Tucson or the state of Arizona for that matter. When I wear that big “A”, or the multiple bear down t shirts at home in San Diego, California, everyone recognizes it and sometimes I’ll get that “BEAR DOWN” screamed at me out the window of a car or while sat at a restaurant and I can’t help but smile every time. The feeling of being a Wildcat comes with that feeling of pride and you tend to walk with that pride wherever you go.

On any day of the week you can walk around campus and see hundreds even thousands of people and without a doubt at least half of those people will be clad in some sort of U of A gear. You can’t help but feel a sense of pride when you see hundreds of students sporting that red and blue that we chant about on Saturday nights in the football stadium.

I have always been one to bleed my schools colors whether it was in high school or now at the University of Arizona, you can catch me wearing as much blue and red as you can possibly imagine because I love the idea of dressing up for your school. Sometimes I will be walking to class with a group of people and I find myself just singing “Bear Down Arizona” song and I just can’t stop.

Listen to The Beach Boys’ song “Be True To Your School” because it describes how I feel about UA.  While writing this article I have tried to pinpoint one thing and one reason only why I love carrying that school spirit with me and I was really at a loss, but last week after taking a second to look around at one of the football games I found the answer as to why attending a school with school pride is so important to me.

The ZonaZoo stays the whole game, and man do we mean business. When you step foot into that stadium the section is just buzzing with excitement and anticipation for the game to start. Once you find your spot, and you look around and that person next to you that you have never is dressed in red and blue and you two are screaming at the top of your lungs, and throwing up the “hit squad” arms, followed with a “FIRST DOWN, BEAR DOWN” and those wild cat hand signs. It is best feeling in the world and it is truly something so much bigger than what it seems at that moment, that entire stadium, minus the other team’s miniscule student section, is chanting the same things at the same time in a giant unified sea of red and blue. You and that person in front, behind or next to you are equal, you are all in that moment cheering on your school and that is a moment you will never get back.

Now you may be reading this and thinking “this is so deep it’s just a football game, what is this girl getting on about”  but the thing is, one day you will be looking back on those football games while watching them on tv in your home with your family and while those around you are watching the game you are watching the student section. Watching and smiling at the faces of the nervous freshman next to the reminiscing senior wishing you could be back in that moment.

Being a Wildcat is easily the best thing I have been so far in my life,  and I couldn’t imagine being anything else.