UMES celebrates Hawk Hysteria

It's one of the biggest nights of the year for UMES, with the Hawks' hoops teams on display, and volleyball taking center stage.  The event is Hawk Hysteria, and it's a big night for UMES.

"This is the second largest crowd of our season, next to homecoming, so we invite the community to come on out because we want to grow our program from the community inside out," said Athletic Director Keith Davidson.

"We not just have basketball but we have fraternities, sororities, we have the dance groups, we have the bands.  So it's really exciting," said Bobby Collins, Head Coach of the Men's team.

The event has been happening annually for decades, beginning as 'Midnight Madness.'

The hysteria has become a way to showcase the men's and wome'ns hoop squads for the community, and to generate buzz before tip-off to the regular season.

"It's an opportunity for them to go out there and showboat a little bit," said Collins.  "This is going to be one of the only times I'm going to be able to allow them to do this, but I want the student body to see that these kids work hard and they have good talent, and we're going to introduce them, not only to our student body, but to the community."

The crowds that show up to Hawk Hysteria also help the teams prepare for the big games later in the season.

"It just prepares us for the big games.  Last season we went up against Maryland, so it just prepared us for that, and other gyms that's usually crowded, it gets us prepared for that," said senior guard Alexus Hicks.

And the players see the buzz that's created when they walk around campus in the days following.

"We have a lot of students coming up to us after the game saying that they really recognize how good we are and they are excited to see us play this year," said center Tori Morris.

Now the men's season opens up November 2nd at home against Christopher Newport, while the women's squad will lace up against Valley Forge, that is also a home game on November 10th.