The football team has its own ways of making the incoming freshmen feel at home.

By Conrad Engstrom | Sports reporter

Nervousness is a normal occasion that occurs to college freshmen worldwide as they start a new chapter of life. Trey Ferrin is no different.

Ferrin is a freshman quarterback on the Bethel University football team from Front Range Christian High School in Littleton, Colorado. His cousin Cale Ferrin was a freshman last year, but that does not make the process of becoming a student-athlete at the collegiate level easier.

“It was very overwhelming coming in,” Ferrin said. “Learning the playbook, seeing all the amazing talent on the team — it was intimidating.”

What makes any move easier is the people who embrace the newcomers. When someone moves into a neighborhood usually their neighbors invite them over for dinner to show some hospitality. The upperclassmen show the hospitality to the freshmen as they move into the Bethel neighborhood, while still having a little fun. When the team eats dinner together it is tradition that the freshman sing their high school’s fight song in front of the whole team in the dining center.

“It is fun to be a part of a big group that pushes you out of your comfort zone with the singing and still make it fun,” Ferrin said.

Junior Cam Monson remembers being a freshman, scared out of his mind to do things like singing in front of the cafeteria. Now as an upperclassman, Monson enjoys watching the freshman get closer to the team with all the shenanigans.

Besides the singing, one of the main activities involves the freshmen buying tickets to the “gun show.” The freshmen go to a select number of seniors, asking for tickets for this “show”, only to see the upperclassmen flexing their muscles in return.

“It is funny to watch the freshman ask for tickets because they don’t exist,” Monson said.

These goofy traditions the football program has with its rookies does not set Bethel apart from other universities. But as each new wave of freshmen come onto campus every year, with different expectations, it is nice to have a group of people to fall back on to make it feel more memorable than lonely.

“The pranking is all good and fun and not extreme,” Ferrin said. “The older guys welcome us with open arms and are very supportive.”