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"It's Been A Summer" (Part 2)
Sports Entrepreneurs and the 365 Day Approach to Hoya Fandom

By John Hawkes

Peter Keszler is struggling to negotiate the gravel pathway adjacent to North Kehoe field. He's piloting an unwieldy combination of an upside-down table stacked on top of a barbecue grill, which he manages to parallel park in the shade adjacent to a tool shed as I walk up to say hello.

"I'm a little worried," he tells me, "My supplier hasn't arrived yet."

"You mean your parents?"

"Exactly."

Peter is the recently-named Head of Hoya Blue Soccer Operations, a position created in large part to capitalize on his unique combination of energy and experience with Georgetown's men's soccer program. He's been coming to North Kehoe Field for four years now to support the team; more specifically, his older brother Andrew, a multi-year starter at goalkeeper for the Hoyas. Pete's relationship with the soccer program operates on a much more familiar level than the average student fan I'll sit with today; in fact, several times prior to the game, my conversation with Pete is interrupted by his brother's teammates and their parents coming over to say hello. He may be the first person I know to simultaneously play the role of head of a burgeoning fan organization and kid brother to twenty-plus soccer players.

Pete later tells me that he began to see a difference in the atmosphere at soccer games last season-whereas before, the crowd at games consisted mainly of player friends and families, Hoya Blue's involvement immediately paid dividends in both atmosphere and team morale. This happened despite the fact that Hoya Blue was admittedly still finding their way as a soccer-supporting organization during the season. Sensing the potential of men's soccer as a spectator sport, over the summer Hoya Blue pitched the idea of a full-time position dedicated to promoting the sport.

"Last year we had a lot of success in building spirit for men's soccer, and we wanted to keep building on that," explained Raymond Borgone, the Hoya Blue officer who originally contacted Keszler about the Soccer Operations job, "It just made sense to let a soccer diehard like Pete run all things soccer."

Hoya Blue has kept their goals for Keszler and the "Hoya Hooligans" relatively modest-keep up with the soccer schedules, keep the club updated about future events, and perhaps try one unique promotion to bring fans out to a game. Thus far, they've also kept their financial support for him relatively modest-he's been given a budget of $150 and a good luck wish.

Keszler outwardly projects an air of modesty about his plans for the Hoya Hooligans-he tells me at this point his two main goals are to increase promotions for men's soccer and improve the atmosphere at games. Anything beyond that, he'll tell you, he'd regard as a tremendous success. I get the feeling though-as I often do talking to members of Hoya Blue-that his modesty masks an intense desire to see a particular sport or promotion take off and be the next big thing on campus. Right now though, Pete's got more important things on his mind-we've been talking for fifteen minutes when I'm interrupted mid-sentence by a phone call from his mother.

Pete is part of a new generation of Hoya fans that are slowly growing in prominence and importance to GU athletics promotion.

I like to call them "sports entrepreneurs".

The concept actually originates in the field of public policy. In his seminal work Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, John W. Kingdon outlines a character called a "policy entrepreneur," who is distinguished by their "willingness to invest their resources-time, energy, reputation, and sometimes money-in the hope of a future return."

I'd like to think Kingdon would make an excellent Personnel Officer for Hoya Blue. I tend to wonder whether his role in the club would have any impact on Pete's $150 budget.

Increasingly, non-marquee sports at Georgetown are building support among students and alums based on the willingness of dedicated fans to invest their time, energy, and mother's SUV to promote them to a larger audience.

So what kinds of qualities make up a true "sports entrepreneur"? Are they more Bureaucrat-in-a-Hoya-Blue-Shirt or Wig'd-Out Event Planner? The truth is that, like the policy entrepreneurs in Kingdon's work, they're some combination of the two, although I suspect policy entrepreneurs probably maintain a minimum of business casual attire.

According to Kingdon, policy entrepreneurs share three qualities:

1. Their position or expertise gives them a claim to a hearing.

It's hard to ignore somebody with the unofficial title of "Head Hooligan". Despite his modest budget, Pete benefits from the enormous cache of goodwill accumulated by Hoya Blue over the past year-plus of sports promotions. One of the more encouraging recent developments on campus is that anybody prominently associated with Hoya Blue has almost instant credibility within both the professional and student administrations of Georgetown University.

This doesn't imply that any member of Hoya Blue with a few twenty dollar bills and a barbecue grill could have an immediate impact on soccer promotions. What distinguishes Pete from the rest of the pack in Hoya Blue is not only his years of experience as a soccer player and fan of the sport, but his long-term intimate relationship with the team as a result of being the goalkeeper's younger brother. If there is such a thing as an authority on Georgetown men's soccer in the student body, Pete is probably it, and Hoya Blue is well aware of this. When it came time to name a Head of Soccer Operations, the choice was simple. "We knew that if anyone could do it," Ray told me, "it'd be a diehard like Pete."

If there is such a thing as an authority on all things Georgetown track and field, there's similarly little doubt in my mind that Don Betowski (CAS 1966) is it. For years, Betowski (a.k.a. "NevadaHoya") has been the go-to guy on the Hoyatalk message boards for updates and recaps of Hoya Track and Field and Cross Country-his avatar proudly displays a photo of former GU standout Chris Lukezic. Though his 38 years of experience as a participant in the sport would more than qualify him as a resident expert, it's the volume of his research and the obvious attention to detail that tend to leave readers the most impressed with his contributions to one of GU's most successful yet often least recognized sports.

2. Their connections or negotiating ability allow them to be involved in decision-making.

Over the course of my two weeks of conversations with Peter about his promotional effort, the thing he seemed most enthusiastic about were his planning meetings with the Hoya players and coaching staff. Being the sibling of a Senior starter has already paid sweeping dividends for Pete, a fact that was evident in the familiarity between him and Head Coach Brian Wiese during a conversation prior to the game I attended.

Having an inside man in on the planning stages has already had a visible impact on the student section at games. The previous year's incarnation of the "Hoya Hooligans" was a far more cautious bunch, wary of the lessons of the "Pots-n-Spoons" brigade of the late 1990s who eventually ran afoul of the Big East Conference on account of complaints regarding their use of kitchenware as fan props. There had seemingly been a "no noise-makers" rule in effect last year in Hoya Blue's mind. This changed prior to the season thanks to Pete's meetings with the Senior captains of the soccer team and the coaching staff, which okayed the use of drums in the student section.

It also comes in handy during emergency situations. At the same game, a reservation mix-up left Hoya Blue without a grill for their planned pre-game barbecue. Fortunately, Pete's mother happens to be in charge of the post-game soccer team meal. Thus, prior to the first home game of the 2006 men's soccer season, the Hoya Hooligans dined on hastily assembled sandwiches courtesy of Mrs. Keszler (and, I assume, several hungry reserve midfielders).

Above all, whether it's a team relative, a dedicated sports writer for The Hoya or The Voice, or simply a long-time fan of a sport they've enjoyed their whole life, familiarity breeds good promotions. Don Betowski still keeps in touch with the current track and field athletes at Georgetown to stay up to speed on recent developments. "I have been known to email a couple of the guys on the team, and invariably they will email back-they do appreciate the recognition from the alumni."

3. They are persistent in pursuit of their objective.

To take just one example, if you were to examine the front page of the "Georgetown Sports" message board on HoyaSaxa.com, you would find that out of the twenty most recently updated threads, "NevadaHoya" and his writings about Georgetown track and field and cross country (plus a running tally of Chris Lukezic race results) account for six of them. The only person with more threads started…

…is Peter Keszler.

NevadaHoya is a busy man. Between the indoor and outdoor T&F seasons, cross country season, Big East and NCAA meets, and Olympic qualifiers, scarcely a week goes by without a new update of results from Hoya athletes past, present, and in some cases future. Following the stable of GU runners is perhaps the one activity that truly exemplifies the 365-day approach to Hoya sports fandom-even with the sudden surge in popularity of the Kenner League and a growing demand for recaps of game action, there are still at least two three-month periods during the calendar year where I won't produce a single piece on Georgetown basketball. NevadaHoya, by contrast, has fans reading and commenting about his favorite sport almost year-round.

Pete's taken a similar approach to the soccer team, beginning his online advocacy during the pre-season scrimmages of mid-to-late August. Any discussion at this point in a team's season is a bonus-just as buzz for the basketball team builds from a Midnight Madness sign or the latest single released by another famous GU sports entrepreneur, Chris "nodak89" Tiongson, so too does interest in the men's soccer team climb when people start talking weeks before the season.

The results are already apparent in at least one forum-the Hoya Hooligans Facebook Group, which delivers a steady stream of messages informing members about upcoming games, promotions, and results of road games. Since Keszler took over the group early this school year, the membership has risen from thirteen to 161 as of the publication of this column.

By capitalizing on their special relationships with the GU sports programs that they have loved for years, then, both NevadaHoya and "HoyaSinceBirth" (as Pete is known-his relationship with the University is even longer than that with the soccer team) have become entrepreneurs of a sort, selling the rest of the university community on being fans throughout the year rather than just during the season.

They've also given us quite a bit to read on Hoyatalk during the long summer months at work.

To be continued...