Northwest bearcats fans watch their team win the championship at Maryville bars.
(MARYVILLE, Mo.) The Northwest bearcats have an entire community of fans that supported them on their journey to become national champions this season.
On Saturday, students, alumni and community members packed inside Burney's Sports Bar in Maryville for a big watch party during the game.
"I feel like Augusta knowing that they're probably the underdogs already given their like, their initial punch and weathering that storm was good for northwest probably go back into halftime. Ben McCollum's gonna make adjustments and should pull it out," Northwest alumn Tomas Coalson said.
"It's great, I mean, this this bar is like, I mean this is the spot in town this is the bearcat home. So it's fantastic. Great environment, everybody's here having a good time cheering on. It's hard to not cheer them on because it's our team. But great local support," Northwest students Aidan Delong and Brayton Hurley said.
Maryville isn't a big town, but the amount of support that Northwest has received on their tournament run speaks to the relationship that fans have with the school.
"It's definitely like a, you know, location based thing where a lot of schools don't get their experiences at any level. And for like, Northwest to be good at you know, football started out and then basketball. It's really cool part of that winning culture that Northwest is all about," Coalson said.
This season might have been the last for one of the starters Trevor Hudgins. So even with the possibility he could leave Northwest, fans say he will always have their support.
"It's kind of like the end of an era in a way. but it's going to be nice to see how it turns out. I think we've got a great chance of winning. Our whole town's behind him, we're backing him the whole way and we'd like to see what he's doing next after this year. We'll be excited to see where he goes," Delong and Hurley said.
And fans were ready to celebrate all weekend when the Bearcats pulled off the win.
"There's a good chance we're not leaving this bar tonight," Coalson said.
"Cats by 90 yeah cats by 90," Delong and Hurley said.
