From yard games outside to video games inside a gaming trailer, music and cheers will erupt from the University Events Center (UEC) Lawn on a Thursday evening for a new pregame social.
“Rally at the Net” is a Homecoming event aiming to bring awareness to Texas State’s volleyball game on Oct. 9. It will be from 4-5:30 p.m., leading up to the volleyball team taking on South Alabama at 6 p.m. Activities will include spike ball, giveaways and other spirit-building activities.
“Our head coach Sean Hewitt will come out before the game to chat with people who have come to attend, and we’ll hopefully have some beverages and snacks for those students as well,” Tori Thompson, assistant athletic director of marketing and fan development, said.
Texas State Athletics and Student Involvement and Engagement came up with the idea to create a tailgate event outside of the UEC.
“We’ve been planning for Homecoming since last April, and this summer, when we met with athletics during our planning process, we realized that there was a volleyball game and so we just worked that into our Homecoming schedule,” Duane Bruce, executive director of Student Involvement and Engagement, said.
Volleyball normally plays on Friday and Saturday nights but had to move up its game to avoid interfering with Saturday’s football game versus Troy. As a result, both departments wanted to ensure they pushed as much attendance and energy to Thursday’s game as possible.
“Since it’s right in the middle of Homecoming Week and there’s a lot of events going on, we thought, ‘Why not get people to come to that as well?'” Thompson said.
According to Texas State’s 2024 volleyball’s record book, the previous volleyball season had a total of 11,284 people attend 13 home games, averaging at 868 attendees per game.
When working on these types of events, Thompson said Texas State Athletics and Student Involvement and Engagement discuss what would be entertaining for students, what makes sense for the space, and what will keep them there and into attending the volleyball game.
This led to the chosen location and tying in different departments to supply the activities. For instance, Campus Recreation will provide equipment such as spike ball and will let “Rally at the Net” borrow a few of its games.
As Thompson said, this is the first time both departments will have an event like this and the event has no sponsors, they used what they could to keep costs to a minimum. This included what equipment and activities were available to use and what worked at other events.
“We’ve got lots of ideas on how we can engage students, and not just football but all of the athletic events that are happening across or at Texas State this year,” Bruce said.
Bruce and Thompson remain hopeful about “Rally at the Net” and its turnout. They wanted to bring awareness to volleyball and add this event to that atmosphere, hoping students will come out and enjoy it.
“Since [students] will already be in the vicinity of the game and that’s what we’ll be encouraging them to do, we’re hopeful that a good portion of those students will come on in and enjoy it, at least for a little bit,” Thompson said.
