Panther Pitt host event

Pitt students can get an inside look at just how Pitt football is preparing to make its fans… Pitt students can get an inside look at just how Pitt football is preparing to make its fans forget about a disappointing 2005 season.

The Student Government Board’s Traditions Committee and head coach Dave Wannstedt have come together to bring Pitt students “A Day at Pitt Football Practice,” an event that will run this afternoon down at the team’s practice facility at UPMC Southside and will give students an exclusive look at the team during its spring trials.

“When we found out that Coach Wannstedt wanted to invite the students to attend spring practice, we were happy to take part in planning everything,” Robin Frank, president of the Panther Pitt, said. “I can’t think of any other college football coach that has done something like this for the students, and it’s a great way to build up student support before the season even begins.”

Students will have the opportunity to take shuttles down to the Southside facility — which the Panthers share with the Steelers — throughout the 1:45 to 5 p.m. practice. Once there, students can tour the complex and interact with the coaching staff and players while the team runs offensive and defensive drills. Free food will be provided by Chick-Fil-A while prizes will be raffled off.

“Last year’s event, ‘Meet Coach Wannstedt,’ was a huge success, so we wanted to do something similar again,” Frank said in reference to last year’s meet and greet with Pitt’s now second-year head coach at the Petersen Events Center.

“Since Coach Wannstedt has been at Pitt for a year now, we decided to change the name to the “Panther Football Preview” because that’s really what the event is about. The new name is also more appropriate because the emphasis is on the entire team rather than one individual.”

Wannstedt’s first season heading his alma mater didn’t bring the kind of success that the pre-season fanfare predicted, as the Panthers stumbled out of the gates, losing their first three games en route to a 5-6 season, the first nonbowl season for Pitt since the 1999-2000 season.

In addition to bringing students the opportunity to see the Panthers’ progress, Frank and the Panther Pitt will be doing a little work themselves. In an ongoing effort to bring a similar student section atmosphere to Heinz Field that exists in the Petersen Events Center with the Oakland Zoo, the Panther Pitt is working to unite the student body in time for a seven-game home schedule for the 2006 football season.

Thus, the Panther Pitt will be introducing the official football season T-shirt, a product Frank hopes all students will wear at football games this fall and that students can still have input on by attending the event.

“At several other schools, students wear shirts with their student section logo on the front and their class year on the back to all of the football games,” she said. “We modified this idea because we thought it would be better to let the student body vote on what the back of the shirt will look like.”

Exact details of how the slogan will be determined have not been finalized, but Frank pointed to a possibility of students being able to submit their slogans at the practice and then later vote on their favorites at my.pitt.edu.

Regardless of what ends up on the back of the shirts, the free event figures to be a celebration of the future of Pitt football, one that Frank hopes will become filled with new traditions, some possibly being born this very afternoon.

“We hope that the official shirts and the ‘Panther Football Preview’ both catch on as annual traditions and something that all Pitt students can take pride in,” she said.