Where was SuperMom?

I didn't see SuperMom! I looked but i don't think i saw her...do you think she actually missed her son's game??

Supermom was there. I think she had a general admission ticket, because she was standing and walking around instead of sitting in section O. But she was definitely there, wearing an orange coat over her Princeton jersey. And yes, she had pom poms.

Yeah that's right...i recall her waving them in one of our "unplaying" players faces. I thought maybe she'd be more obnoxious.

Towards the end of the third period, the tale of Supermom was readily passed on throughout most of A and B. Nice to see that the Faithful can hand down these traditions from year to year. She was quite subdued though (5-1 helps that), only uppity a few times. Anyway, after two years ... Cornell 3 - Supermom 0.

She is, I believe, the mother of one of the central New Yorkers on Princeton, Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer. She is definitely over the top, but has been a "super" fan of her kid and her kid's teams since way back when he was first playing with the Syracuse Stars.

I believe Supermom was actually late. I saw her coming down the stairs into O towards the end of the 1st intermission. I think she was just arriving rather than coming over from somewhere else because she was handing out pompoms at that point. I was close to getting a "Supermom's a facetimer!" chant going, but my voice wasn't up to it right then.

There was a rather wonderful sign over in O during the game. I couldn't read it very well, so I'm making up what I couldn't see (anyone who saw it better, please correct me):

Hockey Tickets: 14$
Something: 2$
Somethingelse: 1$
Supermom Losing: PRICELESS!

All that said, I want to say I think supermom's rather cool. Sure, she's rooting for another team (that sucks) but that kind of enthusiasm, energy, dedication, and sheer freakishness should be admired by the Faithful, as those are the very atributes we pride ourselves on. She shows her support in positive rather than negative ways. I say supermom's a good fan.

For all those reasons, I think the cheers of "Supermom Sucks" "Supermom suck my balls" "Warm up Supermom" etc. are a little out of line. We should be attacking the team, the school, the program, the hometown etc. but shouldn't individual fans should be safe from us? Unless they're trying to steal the cow bell or something of course... I'm not arguing against the occasional "That guy sucks" when it's warranted, but let's keep it good natured folks.

God I sound old...

I appreciate the parents who go to the games. I brought a friend to Yale for a Big Red game a few years back and was criticizing one of the Cornell players (I don't remember who anymore). My friend half-jokingly told me to tone it down, because "his Mom might be here." I told her it was unlikely because all of our players are Canadian, so I didn't figure they followed the team much. Then the mother of Rick Sacchetti (Chelmsford, MA) tapped me on the shoulder and told me it wasn't true. Gotta love hockey moms.

P. C. Drouin's (sp?) mom used to attend the games at Lynah. She drove from Canada to do so. I sat in front of her during my visit to Lynah in '96. I watched in admiration although she was quite a quiet lady.

I then ran into her in the concession lines at the Albany Knick (now Pepsi) Arena during the Cornell - Lake State regional game. I had a very nice conversation with her and looking back it always makes me appreciate that P. C. was a lucky kid (and she was a lucky mom...).

While I was trapped in Michigan last year, I went to see a couple of Michgan State games (while they were #1 in the country. Their rink was 4 times the size of our, and you could still hear a pin drop most of the time. Shameful.) Anyway, they were against Alaska Anchorage, and there were 30 or so fans in Alaska Anchorage jerseys, hats, sweaters etc. That's one hell of a road trip, and THOSE are moms, girlfriends, buddies, fans etc. that I have a great deal of respect for. Even if the school/team pays for a certain number of plane tickets, just the time invenstment and hassle is admirable.

Side discussion: Who's the second coolest, classiest, most rabid bunch of fans out there?

I suspect parents and players expect taunts about their hockey ability or their school, however when you go against them as a person or against their family or friends then I think it's too far.

Underhill's parents were at last weekend and this weekend's games. Considering how far they have to travel, that's something. So don't ever make assumptions based on no knowledge. Think about how they would feel if "cheers" from opponents were against him as a person or his parents, rather than as a goalie.

I think the real issue here is how SuperMom acts in opponent rinks. You don't see Sammy's parents at all the other rinks jumping up at every stoppage waving pompoms, cowbells, blowing noisemakers and generally making an ass of themselves. But that's precisely what SuperMom does. Being supportive is great, but you can't expect 2000 students to see that in their barn and ignore it.

The way I see it, if you're loud and demonstrative on the road you should expect to hear about it from the opposing team's fans. I have no problem with a little taunting of someone who is apparently so over the top supportive. Just like I expect to get yelled at when I'm on the road. As long as at least somewhat good-natured it's OK with me. (There are lines, however, and "suck my balls" probably crosses them...)

That was me and my wife with the sign. The middle two items were "face paint" and "posterboard", but you got the jist of it. I'm just glad anyone could make it out. I didnt have time to fill in the middle letters.

I must say, the view from O was wonderful. Maybe the fact that it was almost all cornell fans helped but everything seemed a little different than my years in D, E, and that year I had to buy all my tickets by singles before the season because I was on leave. The band sounds so much different its scary.

Probably?

This is taken from Princeton's athletics website...


Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer

born July 29, 1982. ... son of Terry and Gita Fouladgar-Mercer ... father is a lawyer; mother is a psychiatrist ... enjoys tennis, soccer and hockey


Perhaps Supermom was working late with a patient yesterday?

Perhaps Princeton will come back to Lynah for the quintafinals and we'll see if SuperMom has as good a sense of humor as JR's mom.

Sharam graduated from the Manlius Pebble Hill School in Syracuse a year ahead of Micaela's brother, Nate and played soccer at MPH with Micaela's brother Josh. MPH, a Class E school, has played up a level and won the NYS Class D Soccer Championship twice in the two years since Sharam graduated.

Small World.

Both Sharam and Maglione for Princeton were great players for the Syracuse Stars teams of the 90's. Along with their former teammate Jeremy Downs.

Gita Mercer is one of the finest hockey fans and moms that exists today. We have watched her work over the past ten years with the enthusiasm and energy most would envy. While she is a 'hockey mom' to her son, she has also been the surrogate mother to scores of other players over the years. Her intentions are always honorable and her prejudices no different than any mother would have for her son's team. Ride her if you must, but respect her for her efforts.

I am pretty sure Supermom was proud of her son yesterday. SF-M scored the third Princeton goal against Colgate...

We caught that on USCHO and he was, arguably, the best forward for Princeton on Friday against Cornell and Gita was very subdued in deference to our crowd.

If Grady mentioned his name once he mentioned it a thousand times. Sounded to me like he was all over the ice nearly all of the time!

Sharam had four scoring opportunities in the first period including a pipe and a massive left leg pad save by Undy. By the way, we had a shot at both Sharam and Maglione but Maglione skipped his visit with us and Sharam wanted to be further from home than an hour. Too bad for us!

Sharam got lots of notice, and he's a very talented player, but there are two ends of the ice. I'm not sure it was all his choice to be more than an hour from home. At CU forwards play defense.

If Supermom was your mom, wouldn't you want to be more than an hour from home too?