Script Draft:Protecting The A

Host: Jett Cattani

-Into Music

Jett: Hello, this is Jett Cattani enlightening you about ASU and some parts about it that not everyone thinks about very often.  ASU has always been a competitive school in athletics especially in the field of football. Relatively, ASU has had a pretty good record in winning football games but that fact does not matter.  Anybody living or taking classes or living on the Tempe campus will notice a huge A on a side of the mountain right next to the football stadium. What does this A represent. Some would say the school as whole, but more importantly it represents our athletics, especially the football team during their season. One could say that like an army or an empire the A symbolizes our strength and unity such as for the Roman Empire a golden eagle in their legions accomplished the same goal as our A. And just like the enemies of the Roman Empire so do our rivals want to demoralize us. One way to accomplish the task is to take away or twist our symbols. The A on A mountain has been coated with new paint multiple times every year. Sometimes it is the school itself or even rival schools before a big game. Reasons that the rivals paint our A are many reasons. Some say it is out of disrespect but ultimately the reason for doing so is to demoralize the student body and even the team its self.

As a student myself, when I see the A painted I feel a sense of loss and demoralization, so I went and asked other students and what they thought.

Student:  “Seeing the A on A mountain being painted a different color other than our own angers me. It’s just disrespectful and definitely demoralizing. Of our school cannot stop a few people painting our A what is going to stop their team from running all over us. This is our home and if we cannot have any sense to have a security system what makes me feel like I can take on the thieves”.

Jett: The very fact that we have no measures except for to paint over the A to its original color after the deed has been done is disheartening. Over the years the A has been painted by rival teams many times and it seems as if though ASU doing anything to protect it more effectively. There is supposed to be students camped out on the mountain to protect it but they don’t seem to be doing their job.

I asked another student about what she thinks about the A being painted by other teams.

Student: “Frankly, these pranks are annoying and I cannot believe the school does not take better measure to protect the A.  By not protecting the A I feel like the school is sending a message to any of the other teams, telling them we cannot protect our own home turf. When these other teams paint our team it feels like we lose the home field advantage, it’s like they brought a piece of their home to us or just took over our turf without much of fight. It basically makes me feel like we are probably just going to lose at the big game anyways”.

Jett: This students feeling was probably most felt at the ASU versus Oregon game when the big A was painted with the famous dark green color of Oregon. ASU ended up losing horribly to Oregon and some say it was Oregon’s awesome skills but some students blame the A being colored green that morning.

Student: “I definitely feel that having the A painted green lowered the moral of our school and team and it was that psychological or mental effect that came from that A being painted that just did not help us win during the game”.

Jett: Just through the Oregon game, depending on how you look at it, it can be seen that by painting the A it gives the rival team an advantage or cancels out the home field advantage of ASU.  This might be seen as not being a very big problem to some students but I think we have to put into consideration that anything and every little thing that is makes winning games that much more possible should be seen as important. When the Romans would lose their Eagle standards in a battle, they would go through great lengths trying to recover them and in the meantime take great lengths in protecting them.  ASU’s A on the mountain is our standard and we should cherish and hold on to it as much as the Romans did with their eagles.

People might be asking so what? Well ladies and gentlemen, the reason for why this story is so important is because the foot ball games and athletics here at ASU make up a very import part of the school. If academics were ASU’s brains then its athletics would be its sheer physical strength. It is important to account for every aspect of ASU’s body and this story about the A is something that hinders our foot ball team’s success and the student’s pride and morale. Maybe through this story people might understand why it is so important to protect the A and maybe take extra measures or precautions to have the A stay the color that school chooses it to be. This is our turf and we must take action to do anything in our power to protect it. A message needs to be sent to our rivals, that we are not push overs. That we fight to protect what is ours and the second they step on our field they should expect to lose and lose badly.  Maybe one day we will see cameras up at A mountain and at any moment’s notice students can be called to it to protect it. There is absolutely no need for our players or students that attend the games to be demoralized or disheartened by our rival teams especially before the game.