University of South Florida hosts record setting attendance on Education Day
TAMPA, FL- The University of South Florida Women’s Basketball team broke their own attendance record Thursday morning at the Yuengling Center during a matchup against Merrimack College.
The Bulls held an attendance of 9,821 fans, the second highest attendance record for a D1 Women’s Basketball game in the state of Florida, and beating their own record from last year’s game against Charleston Southern at home that saw 9,574 fans on hand.
The reason for such high attendance for a USF Women’s Basketball game in the middle of a work day? The program hosted ‘Education Day’ during Thursday’s matinee game for local schools to bring their students out of the classroom to cheer on the Bulls alongside fans.
“What you want is hopefully some of these kids go home and they talk to their parents and loved ones that they had a great time and they want to come back,” Head Coach Jose Fernandez said, “also think ‘Hey you know what I want to be a basketball player one day, you know where I want to study, I want toI want to study at the University of South Florida.’”
Majority of the seats were filled with thousands of local kids, hoping to be inspired from a young age and see the importance of academics and also athletics. Behind the scenes, staff and players filed goodie bags of USF swag and activities for each student to take home.
“It was a beautiful environment today,” Sophomore Guard Vittoria Blasigh said in the post game press conference. “I hope they had fun watching us”
As you looked around the arena, kids of all ages shook green pom poms and cheered on the Bulls every step of the way. The Bulls won 62-43 against Merrimack behind the cacophony of cheers and screams by the thousands of kids.
The Bulls will move on the road to play the current National Title holder’s, South Carolina Gamecocks on Dec. 15 with a 2 p.m. tip off on the SEC Network.