Red Terrors building excitement for Pack soccer

Stadium lights flicker on as the sun sets behind the trees that surround Dail Soccer Stadium. The stands are packed as the whistle blows and the ball is kicked off. From one end of the field you hear the slow beating of a drum and noisemakers blasting, as a giant banner that reads “Red Terrors” waves in the student section.

That is the scene at any given NC State soccer game this season, and is something that isn’t familiar to the program. Starting this year, a new NC State soccer fan club, the “Red Terrors,” has formed, and is bringing excitement and energy to Wolfpack soccer matches. The organization is run by students, and is committed to being avid followers of both the men’s and women’s soccer teams at NC State.

The idea of the fan club came from George Kiefer, the new head coach of the NC State’s men’s soccer team. Kiefer came from South Florida, and wanted something similar to the student cheering group he had at USF. The Pack’s marketing team worked with the university’s international office to help find Ramakrishna Trovagunta Venkata, a graduate student who is now the head of the club. Venkata has been working with the marketing team to help grow the group.

“That was in the month of May,” Venkata said. “Ever since then we’ve been brainstorming different ideas. We started the entire process in the month of August, right before the first game. RecFest is when we started giving out fliers and letting people know that we are the Red Terrors.”

Since then the group has grown slightly, but it’s presence at soccer games is notable. It’s clear that the crowd is more engaged for this year’s teams than it was last year, and there is even evidence in the numbers to suggest the way the atmosphere has changed at Dail Soccer Stadium. In 2016, the men’s soccer team averaged 814 people per match at home. This year, that number is up to 1,141 and the Red Terrors are at the center of it.

It’s a change that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the team either, as the men’s players have been quick to express their gratitude for the Red Terrors all year. Following the team’s 3-0 win over UNC-Asheville on Sept. 26, senior midfielder Julius Duchscherer, who scored twice in that match, had high praise for the fan club.

“It’s amazing,” Duchscherer said. “It has been a great change. We have been working tight together with the Red Terrors. We really appreciate what they’re doing for us. It’s really helpful, they can really push us over the edge sometimes and we’re just really happy about their support and really appreciate it.”

Kiefer has also sung his praises for the Red Terrors on multiple occasions, and echoed Duchscherer’s appreciation. Kiefer also expressed how valuable having a group like the Red Terrors on campus is, and the ways that the fan club is helping the team.

“I think it’s giant,” Kiefer said. “When you look across the ACC and you’re a recruit and you see the atmosphere with the student body and you’re a guy that likes to figure out how to come up with challenges and accomplish them, this is a great place for you to come and play. It’s a blast playing in front of the student group, and you don’t get that at a lot of colleges.”

The Red Terrors are just forming, but the group is starting to imprint its place in the NC State soccer landscape. The fan club has its own social media pages, posting content on game days to help hype up the team and draw a better crowd. On Instagram the group runs a story during the game, and has small features on men’s players and some of their favorite things, in a format that Venkata refers to as “know your player”.

The group is not very large just yet, but is looking for more people to join. Venkata says he hopes that the Red Terrors can help to create a smaller-scale atmosphere similar to some professional teams, and specifically mentioned the heralded fan groups of Borussia Dortmund, a professional club in Germany, and Atlanta United of Major League Soccer as two fan bases that he looks up to.

While these examples are extreme, and Venkata knows that an NC State group isn’t going to produce what they can, he hopes that the Red Terrors can help to build a fun and exciting atmosphere for the Pack. For now, he just asks that people show up and be loud.

“If we can get even 50 percent of what they do in their match day, that would be a huge success for us,” Venkata said. “Our mantra, our tagline, is stand, sing, participate. So we make sure we use the hashtag SSP, which is something we are really keen on.”