Walking into Zorn Arena on a recent mild El Niño December evening, I looked for a spot to watch the Blugolds women’s basketball game. Not being a student, that particular section was a must-avoid – as was the long line of enthusiastic students waiting to get inside for a non-conference game. The area near the benches to see the player-coach interactions was ideal. And, of course, I wanted to sit near my favorite team. I found the signs towards the optimal location, so this longtime Eau Claire resident got situated in the proper place: The Visitors Section.

This is about as close as I will feel to being a stranger in my hometown, but surrounding myself with fellow Luther College Norse fans, applauding and pumping my fists for Luther baskets, and giving a standing ovation when the Blugolds lost at home felt the way you might expect: Weird.

All in all, the formula contributes to a sense of vibrancy and an air of intensity – the sort of tangible intangible that is difficult to obtain in front of your fifty-inch flat screen watching ESPN2.

Then again, a college alma mater is family-like in a way, a bloodline of sorts. Depending on your post-secondary experiences, you develop a strong affinity for the place to which you matriculated for higher education. And this can surely lead to unusual situations when that school plays the main college program from your home.

In any other game this season – especially the Eau Claire-Wartburg game, when the Blugolds played Luther’s archrival – I would have been cheering on Tonja Englund and company. And, really, I should be there much more-often. As much as I enjoy basketball, I am probably like many of us: we read about the Blugolds, or Stout, or even the higher-profile high school teams, and maybe listen on the radio or watch the livestream on the internet, but do not actually become part of the attendance.

This was my first Blugolds basketball game in a decade, and second ever at Zorn. I had not watched a Luther game in-person since I did radio play-by-play as a student at the end of the ’90s. Yet I felt familiarity only minutes from the moment I settled on the bleachers. Smaller-scale – re: non-NBA – basketball is some of the most-entertaining sports you can find.

Say you are in a similar situation to me, always hearing about our Chippewa Valley teams, but not going to the games over the years/decades.

Here is what you will experience in person: You usually are in a fairly-intimate setting; these gyms are about the same ones you remember from your high school days, meaning you could be seated ten or fifteen feet from the action. You hear the players yelling for the ball, directing the action, fighting for position while avoiding a foul. You see the coaches reacting to the foul calls, hear the referees making the calls, and wonder if the refs can hear the complaints from the fans. You feel the roar coming from the students and the pep band, you feel the momentum build when the home team goes on a run.

The aforementioned action may be the biggest selling point. Sure, there will be blowouts – they happen in all sports at all levels – but often these games are close enough that all the players are fighting as strong as possible on each possession. The athleticism is obvious It’s the public display of hours of private practice.

The atmosphere of a warm arena, on what is usually a cold winter evening (this winter mostly notwithstanding) is often enhanced by an animated student section. All in all, the formula contributes to a sense of vibrancy and an air of intensity – the sort of tangible intangible that is difficult to obtain in front of your fifty-inch flat screen watching ESPN2.

Perhaps this is why I found basketball to be the most enjoyable sport to call on the radio during my college years: The constant pace of action, the feeling that the entire venue was a self-sustaining power plant of energy. I again got that feeling while at Zorn that December evening.

Show your interest this winter among the myriad of local programs. Watch the men and women at Zorn Arena, or Logan Rohrscheib and the high-scoring Ramblers, or whatever school is closest to your place. Even if you root for the visitors, basketball has a way of making you feel at home.