Minutes before tip-off at the Fieldhouse Arena, two high-spirited teams stream from their locker rooms and run underneath an inflatable arch to cheers from the crowd.
The house lights go dark as the players take their seats along their respective benches. As the rock music thunders in the background, a spotlight from overhead beams a sliver of light on a group of cheerleaders forming an aisle in front of one of the benches.
Each player is introduced by the courtside announcer, and each one leaps off the bench running through the shimmering corridor of pom-poms.
The atmosphere looks and sounds very much like a home game for the Laker basketball teams, but instead it’s a pair of teams from local middle charter schools — GVSU-authorized Vanguard Charter Academy and Walker Charter Academy — meeting on the Fieldhouse’s court for their league contest.
The game is a collaboration between the sport management program and the Charter Schools Office, said Michael Cousins, assistant director of communications and external affairs for CSO.
