Wells Fargo Arena

Wells Fargo:

Wells Fargo is more than just a 14,000 seating arena packed with legacies and history of previous student-athletes, but it is used for multiple uses throughout the year such as graduation ceremonies and freshmen welcome assemblies and concerts. It is where student-athletes who play the sports, volleyball, basketball, wrestling and gymnastics can prove their success as Sun Devils. The aspects of evaluation present in this space are evident every week. During volleyball games the basketball, baseball, swim, and other teams are there supporting their fellow family members simply because it creates a support system for not only the competing team, but for the supporters as well. How? Because what is done for one team occurs for the other, if the basketball team supports the volleyball team, then the volleyball team will support the basketball team in Wells Fargo. It serves to student-athletes to help play their roles as a Sun Devil, by showing off the amount of hard work they invest in their sport through practice during game days. They prove to the community the winning tradition at ASU by gaining success in each performance.  It becomes a safe haven and familiar place to compete against other PAC 12 teams, where the Sun Devils have a home court advantage and can be supported by other student-athletes and students at ASU. Having big sporting events in Wells Fargo creates the opportunities for student-athletes to be a supportive family member in the Sun Devil family by wearing maroon and gold and cheering on their brothers and sisters. The goal of performing at home for Sun Devils in to get that advantage of being comfortable and having the crowd cheer for your successes. Pressures come along with playing at home, the athletes carry the weight of having to win and therefore become emotionally engaged in their competition. This is what makes a good student-athlete, it is being emotionally invested during practice and games. “Results showed that there is a positive correlation between sport orientation and emotional intelligence and a positive correlation between competitiveness and goal setting with emotional  intelligence among team and individuals athletes”. (Ilyasi, Gasem, Parisa Sedagati, and Mir Hamid Salehian, 2011) The way a student-athlete chooses to respond to the pressures of playing at home and in front of peers determines the mental game which greatly contributes to their performance and final result. Successes and failures will both happen; the student-athletes who are successful are the ones whose successes outweigh failures.

[Sun Devil Volleyball at Wells Fargo Arena; Photo credit: Whitney Follette (2011)]