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Talking About The Ruff Riders
A conversation with Ian Frost from The Santa Clara.
April 13, 2006
JH: How did you wind up as Ruff Riders president for next year? IF: Ross pretty much came and asked me. I've expressed interest in helping out Ruff Riders since freshman year, and this year, I was actually able to have time to really help. JH: What did you do with them this year? IF: I was more involved; I worked for the athletic department in the sports marketing office, so that kind of helped me be more involved. JH: How difficult do you think it's going to be to replace people like Mike Zozos and Ross Nelson? IF: Obviously, their time and effort is invaluable. That's going to be really hard to replace. The two of them have obviously taken the club to new heights. But I have full confidence in everybody that's still going to be around, with A.J. (Perry) and Ryan (Purdy), they're both really dedicated in supporting Bronco athletics.
IF: Ruff Riders is definitely in a good spot, but we can definitely do more. Attendance is up with the efforts of Mike and Ross, but I think the atmosphere could still be improved. A lot of people go to games, but aren't necessarily fully into it. Also, one aspect I kind of wanted to bring in was maybe doing a little bit of community service. I've had brief discussions with the Los Locos (USF) spirit club president about maybe organizing a little friendly competition. JH: Do you think it's likely that membership will level off following this year? IF: I don't know about that. We're going to lose the senior numbers, but with a lot of incoming freshmen, especially with the increasing number of kids coming to Santa Clara, we should be able to keep our membership. We had about 900 new sign-ups this year, and expect similar numbers next year. JH: What's your favorite sport to watch in person? IF: My first love is baseball, so I'd have to say Major League Baseball, but after that, probably college football and college basketball. JH: What about your favorite Bronco sports? IF: That's hard to say. I don't know; I've been involved with the Bronco baseball program, so I'd probably have to say that, but I definitely love watching college basketball. JH: What athlete that's graduating at the end of this year will you miss the most? IF: That's like a trick question because I know so many of them personally. JH: How helpful do you think the soon-to-be-determined amount of Pepsi money will help the Ruff Riders? IF: I think it's going to be tremendous, being able to have more away trips -- bringing the cost of the trip to Portland for the WCC Championships down. It just allows us more flexibility in the things we can do, I'd say, like offering different T-shirts or something. JH: Where do you think your club will function better -- under AS or athletics? IF: I really don't know. I don't know the details of where it's been. I know Ben Tate is working on it, but I've never had any conversations about it with him. JH: Have you thought about altering the Ruff Riders logo next year? IF: It was briefly discussed, but I think it's good the way it is. It's not too flashy, but I think it really represents what we're all about. JH: Do you know what color the Ruff Riders shirt for next year will be? IF: In the schedule, it's supposed to be black. I kind of like the all-red look, but it's to be determined still because we're supposed to get a new shirt every year, but no one is going to want the same exact shirt. So it's still being discussed by the executive council. JH: You're from Oregon, which isn't exactly a sports haven. What sports did you watch as a kid? IF: Well, I'm from Corvallis, so I'm a huge Oregon State Beavers fan. Baseball, basketball, pretty much all Pac-10 sports. I moved there when I was four. I was born in Seattle, and I had a lot of family up there, so I was able to go to at least 10 Mariner games a year since I was probably two or three years old. Also, the last two summers, I've worked for the Mariners in Seattle during the summer. |
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