Dons Die-Hards

“We’re not that big for a D1 school, but you wouldn’t guess it from some of these fans,” says Julie Congi, former Dons Athletics events coordinator. “They’re loyal, they’re loud, and they show up.” Here, we profile a few of the many devoted to the green and gold.

Image

The Knitter

When Alana Loya ’25 applied to USF, her goal was to live in San Francisco, not to become a fixture in the stands at War Memorial gym. Sure, she had played high school basketball in her hometown north of Denver, but sports wasn’t on her radar.

“In February of my first year, I remember there was one men’s basketball game left in the season — it was the last time we played Gonzaga on the Hilltop instead of at the Chase Center,” she recalls. “My friend was begging me to go, and my dad told me that it was the last time I’d be able to see some of those players for free. When I walked out, I was hooked.” “Hooked” might be an understatement. By sophomore year Loya was at almost every USF men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball game. “Just volleyball took up most of my weekends,” she says. A member of the Athletics Department asked her to spearhead a student cheering section in the gym, where she’d rep the replica jersey she hand-knit and urge fellow students around her to “stand up or get out!”

Loya hopes to merge her history major, math minor, and museum studies minor with her career hopes. She interned in the university archives during her last semester to explore Dons’ sports histories, and the experience has her envisioning doing archival work for women’s sports in general. But she’ll always be first and foremost a Dons fan. Referring to the late chaplain of the Loyola University Chicago men's basketball team, Loya says, “In my head, I'm kind of like the USF Sister Jean.”

Image

The Baker

A self-described Army brat who was born in Japan, Maureen Lechwar ’70 didn’t grow up following any single sports team. “My dad watched every sport they’d show on television, and my brother and I watched with him,” she says.

Lechwar applied to two colleges: USF and LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York. She received an acceptance letter from the Hilltop and chose USF. She told her hospitalized father about her decision and he responded: “Burl Toler. Ollie Matson. Gino Marchetti. K.C. Jones. Bill Russell.”

“I’d go to games by myself because my friends weren’t interested,” says the history major and English and philosophy minor. After graduating, Lechwar’s career as a legal secretary at various Bay Area law firms, combined with her role helping her mother to raise her nieces and nephew, meant that cheering for the Dons took a backseat.

That all changed at her 20th reunion.

“I talked to my classmates and I was reminded of how much I loved those games,” Lechwar says. “Eventually, my mother who was sidelined by her fifth heart attack came to the games.”

Her mom was the one who suggested baking cookies, brownies, and quick breads made with fruits from her garden. Decades later, she’s still cheering on the Dons and attending basketball games all the way from her home in Fairfield.

“I can honestly say that the people I went to school with at USF are the kindest and most supportive people,” Lechwar says. “That extends to the fandom.”

Image

The Aunties

Zalka Ancely ’81, MBA ’84 and Marty Becker first bonded over a love of sports. Almost three decades later, that love has grown to include season tickets to the San Francisco 49ers, the San Francisco Giants, the Golden State Valkyries, and — most importantly to the couple — courtside seats at USF women’s basketball games.

When they began dating, Ancely, a proud alumna, brought Becker along to cheer for the women’s basketball team at War Memorial. “The first thing I felt was a sense of family,” Becker says. “The other fans, the coaching staff, the people working the games, everyone seemed like real friends. They made you feel like part of the team.”

Ancely says, “We consider ourselves the team aunties at this point.” They greet every new player, especially the international players far from home.

“When an international player’s parents come to visit and attend a game, they always come over to us and thank us for making their kid feel less alone,” Becker says. “That’s the best feeling.”

We let every player know as soon as they join the team, now we’re a fan of yours for life.”

Zalka Ancely ’81

Becker and Ancely don’t just provide sideline support. They’re annual donors to the basketball program, and try to grow the team’s booster circle. “We did well enough in our careers that now that we’re retired, we get to help fund the team we believe in so much,” Ancely says. They host team dinners. They bring baskets of fruit. They travel to away games near and far (last year they made it to New York; the year before, Hawaii). They take visiting former players out to lunch or dinner. “We let every player know as soon as they join the team, now we’re a fan of yours for life,” Ancely says.

Though their courtside style may be slightly different — Becker sits two seats away from Ancely because the latter is “very vocal and likes to keep the officials on their toes” — their devotion to the team, its coaches, and most of all, its players, is a perfect match. They’re excited to meet new players this fall, and to welcome back those who are returning. Laughing, Ancely says, “The veterans let us know, ‘We’ve already told them all about you!’”

Image

Gold Pants

When Lily Yuan ’10 saw a table advertising Los Locos, a Dons spirit squad, at a freshman event, she knew she’d found her people.

“We went to every game we could — basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball — you name it, 20 to 50 of us would be there, for both men’s and women’s sports,” Yuan says. Supplying all those teams with spirit took up almost all her free time, especially after she and a few friends took the helm of Los Locos in her senior year. “My nickname was ‘Gold Pants’ because I’d wear these crazy gold lamé pants that ripped away when I yanked them — which I’d always do in major moments.”

When she flew to Indianapolis in 2022, following the Dons to their first March Madness appearance since 1998, she brought along a full wardrobe of green and gold. “You could tell other diehards by looking for green and gold in the crowd,” she says.

But it’s not just at far-away games that Yuan uses her outfits to find her tribe. This past August, during her first week in a new role at Envoy, a global workplace management software company, she wore green and gold heels (and created a USF Slack channel) on day two and wore her lucky USF dress on day four. She plans to sport the USF puffer vest-turned-jersey she’s been crafting this winter and wants to make a request to the USF bookstore: “Start carrying Dons dog merchandise!” She’d like it to match her USF license plate frames.

Image

The Jester

Of his unique wardrobe when attending Dons basketball games, Waldo Pasache says simply, “It’s kind of hard to throw out a clown.”

Pasache’s outfits — the large platinum wig, huge green Hulk gloves, various Dons jerseys — can be disarming, to the point that his wife won’t sit with him at games. “We go into the gym together, and then she’ll meet me after,” he says.

But the costume serves a bigger purpose. According to Pasache, half the reason he came up with the outfit was to get his son, Mars Pasache ’20, to crack a smile. “He was a guard on the men’s basketball team and then the team manager, and was always a pretty stoic, serious kid. I like to make him laugh.” The other half of the reason? “Listen, I saw these kids, so young, far from home, playing in what’s really now an adult league. They needed a little levity, and I’ve never been accused of being mature.”

The season ticket holder is excited to make his passion a family tradition, as Mars and his wife Mika’s son Xander, who is 4, made him a grandfather.

“USF is just so impressive. My son came out wonderfully, and I just have such a deep appreciation for the school,” Pasache says. He describes Xander as “the superfan heir apparent.”