‘Couldn’t miss this one’: CCU fans flock to Orlando for Chants’ first ever bowl game
Morgan Pierce was at CCU’s first home football game in 2003.
She was also in Omaha, Nebraska for CCU’s College World Series championship in 2016.
So going to CCU’s first bowl game on Saturday night, the FBC Mortgage Cure Bowl in Orlando, Fla., especially with the Chanticleers (11-0) trying to close out an undefeated season as the No. 9 team in the AP Top 25 Poll, was a no-brainer.
“This is a first. I feel like we’ve been at Coastal’s first for everything up to this point and we couldn’t miss this one either,” Pierce said. “. . . I went to the first Coastal football game in 2003 with my dad and sat at the 40-yard line. I remember everything. We beat Newberry that day and everyone stormed the field.”
Pierce, her husband Josh and their 4-year-old son Ryan were among the many CCU fans who made the trip to Camping World Stadium to be part of the 4,483 in attendance and witness school history against No. 23 Liberty (9-1).
The Pierces made the final call on attending the game Saturday morning. “I told her this morning, ‘Let’s just go to Conway and watch it with everybody else,’ and I saw the look on her face and I said, ‘All right, pack up the car and we’ll leave in 20 minutes,’ ” Josh Pierce said.
“I was going to be disappointed for sure if I was watching it at home on TV instead of being here, so we had to come,” said Morgan Pierce, who met her husband at Coastal and graduated with him in 2013, and whose parents also met at CCU and graduated together in 1982.
“I feel like I’ve grown up with Coastal,” Morgan Pierce said. “They were a young program when I was a kid and I’ve just grown up watching them. We went through some hard years. I was in the student section in college when maybe five kids were in the student section with me and I was sitting by myself. Now it’s packed, games are sold out and it’s incredible to see such a young program already get this much success. It’s awesome to see the history and know that’s my hometown school, that’s my family’s school.”
Trey White’s family also has deep roots in the university, which made attending the game a must. He’s a graduate, his father, Wayne, is a former Coastal sports information director and his wife, Stephanie, is also a graduate. They traveled to the game with several friends.
“Me and my husband made a pact that as long as it was within 15 hours for the bowl game we were going. We would not miss this for anything,” Stephanie White said. “We’ve been waiting for Coastal to go to a bowl game for years. He was born into Coastal and I’ve been there four or five years now. We’re huge Coastal fans so whatever it took we were going to their first bowl game.”
The Whites have attended every CCU home game in each of the past three seasons, and this season’s games brought the most excitement despite attendance being limited by the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s more than we could ever ask for, especially this year with covid, being able to watch every home game and be there was awesome,” Stephanie White said.
The pandemic and long drive wasn’t enough to deter ardent CCU fans from making the trip.
“You have to make this trip, pandemic or not. Wear a mask and be careful, you have to show up and support the Chanticleers,” said Taylor Spangler, who also attended the 2016 College World Series in Omaha. “This is definitely history being made. Cure Bowl, Orlando, 2020. It’s been a crazy year, Coastal Carolina is No. 12 in the nation, you would never believe it. And we’re here to stay.”
The unusually cold temperature in Florida also wasn’t enough to keep people from attending the game. The temperature was in the high 30s and low 40s for the game. “We usually go to New Jersey for Christmas so we’ll be able to tolerate it,” Stephanie White said. “It’s just as cold. We brought all our winter gear. We’re layered up. Hats, gloves, scarves, Under-Armor.”
Hayden Bannick, a CCU senior, made the trip with five people, including his father, Dennis, who used to take him to CCU football games as a young child from their home in North Carolina.
“My freshman year I skipped an exam to go to the Liberty game, which was supposed to be the last meeting in the FCS between Coastal and Liberty, and now with this being the first meeting in the FBS and it’s our first ever bowl game, it’s extremely important to come down to this game,” Hayden Bannick said. “. . . After going to the BYU game and the App State game, everything building up, you think there’s no way it can get better than the BYU game, but it feels like this game could live up to the hype like the BYU game did.”
Many Coastal fans were prepared to travel to a New Year’s Six bowl, but the Chants were passed over for one college football’s biggest bowls by the College Football Playoff selection committee.
“I think we definitely deserved a New Year’s Six bowl,” Spangler said. “I think that would be the closest thing to what the baseball team did a few years ago in 2016. We’re getting there. We’re brand new to it but we’ll definitely in the next few years be there, for sure. It will be a huge accomplishment if we [go undefeated]. Three years in FBS, a brand new team coming in. We’ve definitely shocked the world with it.”
The Chanticleers appreciated the support. “We heard the support. We saw all the teal down here, it was awesome,” CCU head coach Jamey Chadwell said.
This story was originally published December 26, 2020 at 10:50 PM.
