How To Be Swedish

If you like a sports team (let’s take hockey for example) a normal person will go to the games, read about the team in the paper, maybe even buy a jersey or scarf. Yes, I said scarf. However, if you REALLY like the team and you have nothing else of importance going on in your life, you can be a part of your favorite teams “official” supporters group. Every team will have one whether it’s an elite series team or the fourth or fifth division down. You can be a part of this elite level of hockey fan club and dedicate your life to cheering on your favorite team. The groups will usually have their own names that may or may not have anything to do with the teams name, they might have their own website, they’ll have their own designated section of the rink where they all stand together, and they seem to have some sort of a hierarchy going on. The head cheerleader will usually stand towards the front beside the guy banging the drum and face the rest of the supporters and lead them in cheers and songs much like a choir director. Other members will be in charge of flag waving or perhaps holding up scarves with their teams name written on them. The director will start a chant or a song and everyone will sing and clap along until it mercifully wears out, after which they’ll hopefully be quiet for a couple of minutes before they start again. It’s genius how they come up with the songs. Here’s the formula: Take a well known tune (When The Saints Come Marching In, for example) then take the name of the town where the team is from, or the teams abbreviation, and those are your lyrics. Just repeat them for the entire song. These super fans will often take the show on the road too and bus it to away games. The numbers are a little lower on the road which could mean that some of the turbo fans actually have jobs, however I can’t say for sure.