Florida Gulf Coast has a fever and the only prescription is more Eagles

Kailah Casillas gives an inside look at Florida Gulf Coast University. (
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Kailah Casillas is a junior journalism major at Florida Gulf Coast University who hails from West Palm Beach, Fla.

DUNK CITY, Fla. — A few weeks ago, I only saw a few people on campus rockin’ FGCU gear.

But that’s all changed now. When I ran into Christopher Sargent, a fifth-year engineering student, he said “school spirit was non-existent before this whole March Madness. Now we have something to stand behind. We have something to be proud of.”

This is new for us. This is huge for us. Unless you are a student or faculty here, you can’t understand the magnitude.

It’s not that we didn’t have Eagle love and pride, it’s that we never had anything this big to root for. It’s sad that I’m about to admit this, but before March Madness, I never watched an FGCU men’s basketball game and I own only two FGCU shirts.

After the win against San Diego State, the FGCU bookstore had hourlong lines, which I refused to stand in, to buy FGCU apparel.

It’s cool how the entire city has banded together to show support for our school. Even some older people I’ve seen walking around the local mall were wearing FGCU shirts. The local McDonald’s has a marquee that reads, “LET’S GO FGCU.” The local bars are all coming up with special green-and-blue shots with names like “The Eagles Landing,” “The Blue Eagle” and “The Dunk City Shot.”

I work at a sushi restaurant close to campus called Blu Sushi. On game nights we offer Eagle-inspired Sake Bombs with blue beer and green sake. I was at work the night of the Georgetown game, and it was fun to watch the bar crowd order these Eagle Bombs when the team scored points.

One of the most popular places to watch the game was our local Bar Louie, where FGCU held an official watch party. Joe Jarvis, a 21-year-old server who works there, told me the bar was absolutely insane.

“It was wall-to-wall people, you could barely move,” he said. “And if you were lucky enough to get a table, you sat at a table, and if not, people were standing around and the energy level in this place was phenomenal.”

Sargent was at a different bar called Uptown Larry’s, another popular place for students to watch the game. He said you could feel all of the energy of Fort Myers in this one location.

“As soon as our team won, people were passing around shots, jumping in the air, spraying beer everywhere,” he said. “It was just utter chaos and anarchy and it was the biggest moment our school has ever experienced.

“Monday afternoon, I went to the FGCU pep rally. It was nuts. I didn’t know what to expect before I showed up. I’ve been to one other pep rally. It was my freshman year and I was one of the few people who went and ended up leaving 15 minutes after I got there. This time, a couple of thousand people were in the stands in a sea of blue and green. There were students who were full-body painted, people wearing costumes and holding signs. One of the signs said, “Sherwood, shake them dreads.” And when Atlantic Sun player of the year Sherwood Brown saw the sign, he shook them.

I intern on a morning show at B103.9 (WXKB) called, “Big Mama and the Wild Bunch.” Jason Jones, also known as Big Mama, made a permanent bet on the FGCU-Georgetown game.

“I was so excited that they made the tournament that I said if they win, I’ll go get an FGCU tattoo because if they win the first game and beat Georgetown, they can beat everyone,” he said.

Jones made the bet on-air and held up his end of the deal when FGCU beat the Hoyas.

This type of overnight media attention was totally unexpected to me. Did I ever think that my school would be on TV and radio all over the country? Yes. But did I ever think it would be so soon? No.

I figured all of this exposure would happen years down the road, way after my graduation. I’m glad that it’s all happening now, while I’m still here.

I might even go buy another shirt or two.