Do you remember how you felt watching the women’s basketball team last year?

Do you remember the 33-game win streak that they strung together?

Do you remember watching them win at home in the GLIAC tournament? In the NCAA tournament?

Do you remember Jena Stutzman’s shot to send the NCAA Championship game to overtime?

Chances are high that you do remember. You remember all of these things.

You probably even remember where you were watching that game against Shaw University on television.

The reason you remember is because you cared. As the wins stacked up, you cared more and more. And as that care increased, so did your attendance at games.

You even got spoiled when they played eight more games at home than they did on the road—19 total. All 19 were wins.

At the 2011 home opener against Oakland City, the Eagles won handily, 98-48. Only 138 people watched that game, though.

Empty stands were common in those early season games. Attendance ranged from 206 to 614 through the first half of the season at home.

Even riding a 15-game winning streak at the Jan. 21 game against Lake Superior State, only 291 fans watched as the streak was pushed to 16.

It’s hard to play when no one is watching. If no one is watching, shouldn’t you be led to assume that no one cares?

As soon as the Eagles came home after win number 20, the community actually started to come out to games. They started to visibly care, filling the stands at least to one-third of their capacity. Wins 22 and 23 came in front of audiences of 864 and 966, respectively.

As fans, it was impossible to deny how dominant the team was. How dominant our team was.

They became our team. They kept winning. We kept watching.

When they came home for the GLIAC tournament quarterfinals, attendance broke the 1,000 barrier. Cheering got louder. The fans became more and more intimidating for the opposing teams.

At an absolute nail-biter of a game against Quincy in the NCAA Midwest Region semifinal, the crowd was louder than anything I’ve ever heard at an Ashland University athletic event. I couldn’t even hear myself think.

Which was perfect. It made me cheer louder. And if I was feeling that way, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.

More than 2,000 fans attended that game. During the next game, the regional championship against the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, 2,644 fans watched a 78-65 win that propelled the win streak to an incredible 31 games and sent the Eagles to the Elite Eight in San Antonio.

When a team gets that kind of support, they are unstoppable. Improbable things happen. A team that started a season with a loss can rally to win the next 33.

Last season, that Eagles team played for more than just themselves. They played for teams that came before them. They played for you. They played for the university. They played for something much, much larger.

I want you to remember watching that national championship game last year. I want you to remember how that felt.

I want you to remember that at every home game this season. As wildly successful as those women may have been last year, they’ll need your help again this year. They need you to care from the very beginning of the season, from that first home game against Kentucky Wesleyan at 3 p.m. Saturday.