Banned Camp

By Jesse Dougherty | Staff Writer

Cold-blooded

It’s two minutes past 5 p.m. on Monday and chatter hums in a pocket of the Carrier Dome while the rest of the Syracuse University campus settles into a quiet dusk.

The sign above the alcove reads “Gate E” but the students call it “Boeheimburg.” Tents are sprouting up out of the concrete and a small village is starting to take shape. The thermometer on the green Boeheimburg sign hovers between 20 and 30 but the air is 19 degrees.

The campout for the Syracuse-Duke game has begun.

Davis Hovey, a junior broadcast and digital journalism major, ties his boot outside of his tent in Boeheimburg near Gate E of the Carrier Dome. Frankie Prijatel | Photo Editor

“These are the people that really care,” said Natalie Wiesnet, a senior television, radio and film major and vice president of Otto’s Army. “I mean it’s the freaking Duke game.”

While setting up his tent in a corner of Gate E, Keating Gribbon, a freshman on the pre-law track, stretches a blanket for his tent-mates to see. It has orange and white fringe and reads “2003 National Champions” across the bottom, a keepsake for the Cleveland, New York, native.

“This thing is 12 years old,” Gribbon said. “We have to replace this. It’s too old.”

Yet the reality is that Syracuse won’t have a chance to this season, and the next few years remain up in the air. The university has already settled on a self-imposed postseason ban for this season, and the results of an NCAA investigation are on the way. The season has been mired by consequences of the transgressions of past teams but the campers — the Orange’s ultimate faithful — remain undeterred with Saturday’s 6 p.m. game in their sights.

"If anything it made me want to camp out more because it’s like the last big thing for this year,” said freshman environmental engineering major Kiera Hess. “One of the last chances for us to be pumped up and, well, freezing too.”

Eight tents were set up Monday and returning campers remembered last year’s 13-day campout for SU’s 91-89 win over the Blue Devils. That came under different circumstances, as Syracuse was 20-0, ranked No. 2 in the country and in the thick of a positive national conversation.

But the campers said there was little doubt they’d camp out this year, even with a 15-8 record and no chance of postseason play. The community drew them all back.

The temperatures fell below zero last year and they braved it together. Toward the end of the 13 days, SUNY-ESF students brought a table and ping-pong balls and they all played “snow pong” while looking out for Department of Public Safety and Carrier Dome staff. At the end of it, they were closest to what SU head coach Jim Boeheim called the greatest game in Carrier Dome history.

The setup wraps up around 6:10 p.m. and the campers retreat into their tents. Cell phones, laptops and iPads light up faces and provide temporary entertainment. But they’ll soon run out of battery and be replaced by remedial tasks.

“There isn’t much down here,” said Topher Lane, a junior communication and rhetorical studies major who also camped out the last two years. “Staying warm is enough to worry about.”

By Tuesday morning, Boeheimburg is slightly less endearing than it was the night before.

The boots that were neatly lined up are now turned on their sides. Empty takeout boxes sit outside of three tents. The blankets and sleeping bags that were carefully laid out have turned into cold-repelling bundles.

At 11:41 a.m., Wiesnet starts a roll call and heads start poking out of tents. Group No. 1, four freshmen boys who will be the first to choose their seats on Saturday, doesn’t answer at first and a neighbor walks over to check if anyone’s home.

“Here, here!” someone yells from inside.

“I need you to unzip your tent so I can see your face,” Wiesnet says.

A camper peaks out and reveals mussed hair and bleary eyes. Sleepless. Cold.

“What time is it?” he asks.

One-hundred and two hours and 19 minutes until tip off.

Sunshine smiles as he speaks with other campers outside the Carrier Dome. Chase Gaewski | Staff Photographer

Sunshine

When Sunshine was a freshman in 2012, Boeheimburg turned into DJ’s On the Hill before Syracuse’s March 3 game against Louisville. A group of seniors ripped a door off a Day Hall closet to use as a beer pong table. Students were charged admission at the top of Gate E. Cases of beer were shuttled in and the cold became all the more bearable.

He doesn’t remember his first campout or how many he’s made it through, but that night is a benchmark of four years sleeping outside of the Dome.

“DPS really liked that,” said Sunshine, equally wistful and sarcastic. “Man, that was fun.”

When Sunshine — or senior communication and rhetorical studies major Michael Barta, as far as his birth certificate and Syracuse record are concerned — was a freshman on the drum line of the Syracuse marching band, a group of seniors told him he was camping out.

“I said, ‘Cool, what are we camping for?’” he recalls asking. “They just told me to dress warm and that they’d provide the blankets. That was how it all began.”

Now he’s a Boeheimburg savant who’s been to every campout — usually multiple in a season — and can count the games he’s missed on one hand. Sunshine once poured coffee for campers alongside SU assistant coach and former guard Gerry McNamara, Boeheim’s been inside of his tent and he was one of 35,446 fans to break an on-campus attendance record against Duke last year.

Those are the vivid memories and he’s in the midst of making one more: camping out for a game that has no postseason implications to finish his college career the way it started.

“The campout is subdued this year compared to other years with the ban,” he said. “But I had to be out here. I’ve just done so many it wouldn’t have made sense otherwise.”

In the middle of a five-hour shift before sleeping over on Wednesday night, Sunshine is the noticeable veteran of the group.

There are two well-kept beds inside of his tent while other groups have lost all organization. There are Dunkin Donuts cups and Pepsi cans scattered about the concrete but nothing on Sunshine’s front lawn. When a fellow camper asks if he has any food he creatively keeps his bag of bread and chips a secret.

“Me no speak any english,” he says in a fake accent before flashing a grin and ducking back into his tent.

Sunshine arrived on campus two weeks before the start of his freshman year, and the returning members of the drum line decided that his long hair made him look like the character “Sunshine” from “Remember the Titans.” But he also brings a bright disposition to Boeheimburg, where no one calls him Mike and few would even know to.

With camping experience that stretches past Syracuse basketball games, Sunshine is a walking survival guide. He says that you’ll never be cold with a sleeping bag inside a sleeping bag. He keeps his shoes outside of the tent to avoid puddles under the blankets. And he puts his tent against the same concrete wall every campout because having somewhere to learn your head “is key.”

He’s also fielded questions from first-time campers this year, some more practical than others.

Can we go to the bathroom inside of the Dome?

No, sorry.

Can we throw a football around in the Dome?

Really? No.

The freshmen remind him of his younger self.

“He always manages to keep a smile on everyone’s face despite how cold it is or how low the morale is,” Wiesnet said, who is sharing a tent with Sunshine this year. “And he’s the one who owns the tent and half the sleeping bags so we literally wouldn’t survive camping without him.”

Thursday morning, after sleeping over in Boeheimburg and then catching a morning nap, Sunshine stares through a glass revolving door at Gate E and into the empty stadium.

On Friday, the campers will be moved inside the Dome because of sub-zero temperatures and an impending storm. That will be a first for Sunshine, who didn’t think there would be any “firsts” after so many campouts.

Yet he still expects one more before the week is out.

“I’m expecting closer to 40,000,” said Sunshine, referring to SU Athletics announced sell-out attendance of 35,446.

“This is Duke. This is our game, man. After the ban, this is like our championship.”

Warming Up

With close to 20 groups camping in Gate E and D on Wednesday, Sean Fernandez felt uneasy about the “wind-chill warnings” and projected sub-zero temperatures.

When temperatures dipped below 0 heading into last year’s Duke game, the campout was suspended for three days. This time around, the Otto’s Army president booked Boeheimburg for a one-night stay in the Carrier Dome.

“I looked at my phone and saw all the weather updates for the end of the week,” Fernandez said. “I couldn’t ignore that. Had to get everyone inside.”

For most of the season, Syracuse (16-8, 7-4 Atlantic Coast) basketball has been like a deflating balloon. The Orange came within a successful inbound pass of beating then-No. 7 Villanova in December but threw the game away. Chris McCullough twisted his knee in SU’s third conference game against Florida State on Jan. 11 and was ruled out for the year the next day. Then the self-imposed ban put the last stretch of the season — which includes five games against ranked opponents — through a proverbial paper shredder.

But Friday was a reprieve from the sporadic disappointment, with a warm night in the Dome and a surprise visit before the biggest game of the year.

“Better in here than out there,” said freshman accounting major Jacob Cronk, motioning his head to Gate E. “Much better in here.”

After dropping their stuff inside around 12:30 p.m., close to 50 campers were ushered back into the cold where a Dunkin’ Donuts tent awaited.

“The legend!” One camper yelled, right as Jim Boeheim stepped out of a tan Jeep and walked over to the line.

The head coach was accompanied by SU assistant coaches Mike Hopkins and Adrian Autry, who chatted with campers over donuts and coffee.

Hopkins opened up a box of orange donuts that spelled out “Beat Duke” and started handing them out. Autry sipped a coffee while telling three campers “it’s going to be a close one.” Boeheim made his way through the crowd to shake hands, take selfies and pose for pictures.

And as he did, campers showered Boeheim with everything from “Let’s get a win tomorrow” to “Thank you for coming out.”

To most of them he said, “No, thank you.”

“It’s hard to believe, I’m here 10 minutes and all I can last is 10 minutes,” Boeheim said. “I don’t know how they can do it, it’s great. In fact I think I’m about ready right now to get back in the car and get ready for practice today.”

When the coaches left, the campers filed back inside and started the last leg of their wait.

By 7:45 p.m. — after a day spent sitting around — they munched on pizza ordered by Otto’s Army and found ways to keep busy. Some laid on stacked air mattresses and played games while others lounged on the concrete and talked to fellow campers. Most kept to themselves, typing away on laptops or staring off with headphones in their ears.

At the front of the line, a restlessness consumed Cronk and Gribbon.

“It’s going to be a long night with not much sleeping,” Gribbon said. “We’re not sure what to do.”

Right as the words left his mouth, one tent mate walked through Gate P, smiling ear-to-ear with a red duffel bag in his hand.

“He has the PS4!” Cronk said.

“Let’s go, I got first game,” a camper in the group followed.

That’s how Friday night went, with the group inventing ways to make it to 11 a.m. on Saturday, when they’ll pick up their things before regrouping in the student section for a pep rally at 1 p.m.

Aside from the occupied hallway, the rest of the Carrier Dome was pitch black. The campers couldn’t see the football field on the near side of the stadium much less the basketball court. Voices and music carried into the darkness and died out before they could echo off the hallowed walls.

But in less than 24 hours, the week-long campers will sit closest to the court and the rest will file in behind them. The lights will turn on and the hushed chatter will turn into the loudest cheers the Dome has heard all season. The cold and the concrete and the coats over coats over coats will be in the past.

And after Syracuse plays Duke and the final buzzer sounds, they’ll have been ringside for one of the last meaningful fights of the season.