EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Miners are celebrating spirit week ahead of the Saturday Homecoming game and the celebration started on Wednesday early morning with the Miner Morning Mania.
Wednesday starting at 5 a.m. UTEP’s cheer and dance team, along with the marching band and the Athletics Department gathered by the Student’s Recreation Center for an early pep rally.
Miners will be playing their first conference game this season against the Old Dominion Monarchs at the Sun Bowl.
Head football coach Dana Dimel said he is excited to see the fans back at the stadium to support the team.
“It makes a huge difference to us when our fans are out there. We’re really telling the students to get out to follow your Miners, it’s so much fun to watch your team play,” coach Dimel said, ” and all the people of El Paso come and watch your Miners play.”
UTEP’s Athletic Department has seen several triumphs so far.
The volleyball team is on it’s best start of the season since the beginning of this program.
“It’s in the past now. We’ve got a couple things of front of us now, we celebrated, but we only celebrated for a short amount of time because we have more matches, first one coming up this weekend,” said the volleyball coach Ben Willis.
Their next game will be against Rice University.
UTEP Cheer and Dance team also announced their participation at the popular Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York.
“We need your support, we need you to cheer us on,” said head cheer coach Bianca Marquez.
President of the university Dr. Heather Wilson was excited to see the students back on campus and being able to participate in homecoming activities.
She said this is the most homecoming activities they have had so far.
“Our students desperately needed to be together. We were able to persist through the pandemic, but that is not the best way to teach. We’re really good in engaged learning both on campus and in the community,” said Dr. Wilson.
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