It doesn't have to be dull and lifeless, either.
Kyle and Pam Heitmiller make sure neither is the case for Belton sports outings.
For a dozen years the Heitmillers have been fixtures at Tiger Gym and at the Lady Tigers' softball field, with Kyle handling public address duties and musical interludes while Pam dutifully keeps the official scorebooks. They've developed a cohesion that makes attending a Belton game pleasurable regardless of which side of the gym or diamond you're sitting.
"We started slowly and just evolved into it," Pam said. "We just enjoy doing this and watching the kids play."
And they've watched a lot. The Heitmillers, sweethearts from the West High School class of 1977, have sent four girls - Brett, Blair, Brooke and Bailey - through the Belton system with son Beau currently participating in Tiger athletics as a junior.
All the girls were multi-sport athletes but were best known for basketball. During a 10-year stretch that ended two years ago with Bailey's graduation, there was a Heitmiller girl on coach Randy Bell's varsity basketball team.
"Their classmates and teammates are like family," said Kyle, who coached many of those players in a variety of youth sports as his children were growing up.
Brett, the oldest of the girls, was playing eighth-grade basketball when Kyle and Pam first went to a Belton basketball game to see what life would be like in upcoming years. Kyle immediately saw a void he was more than willing to fill.
"There was no atmosphere at all," he said. "No music, not anything."
Soon after, Kyle got together with Bell to install a sound system and they got some people together and painted the gym.
"It sounds really, really good now," Kyle said. "We turned it into some atmosphere. We turned the gym into a jungle. It's rowdy with a lot of noise. It's a home-court advantage."
But it's not noise for the sake of noise. It's purposeful. Kyle has put his ear and voice for music to good use. He's long lost count of how many times he's sung "The Star Spangled Banner" before volleyball, basketball and softball games. He delivers it in the traditional form of the song with a country lilt in his voice. No freestyling. He's even come out of the stands a time or two at road games to sing it when the CD player malfunctioned.
"We've tried to get kids to sing it and they do sometimes," said Pam, who works in the office at Lake Belton Middle School. "But people like the way Kyle sings it."
"I sing it the standard way and not deviate," Kyle said. "That's the way I remember hearing it played. A lot of the military families in Killeen really appreciate that."
Performing comes second nature to Kyle, an electrician by trade. He routinely sings at his church and formed a Texas-tinged country-rock group called the Leon River Band, which plays at area haunts and social functions. Kyle is the lead singer and guitar player and the band plays much of its own material.
What Kyle plays at sporting events, particularly volleyball and basketball games, is far more eclectic than his group's tunes. There's a hint of current rap music, but it mostly draws on the harder rock of a generation ago and the progressive country music he personally enjoys. He concedes to allow the players to put together their own "run-in" music to open warm-ups, which lasts about 12 minutes.
"After that I take over and play what I want," said Kyle, who makes sure the parents and fans of his generation can listen to something they recognize. "I play AC/DC and Van Halen, which is high-energy. Those of us in our 40s and 50s, that's our music. I'm going to throw in some country, too, because I'm an old country boy."
While Guns 'n Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" and Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" are Tiger Gym classics, Kyle manages to soften the mood during at least one specific interval - when the opposing volleyball team takes its turn to warm up its net attack game.
The visitors are typically serenaded with slow, full-length ballads such as Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces," Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" and my personal favorite, Captain & Tennille's lethally saccharine "Muskrat Love," which has proven to be an effective form of criminal interrogation.
"We're trying to pump them down," Kyle said. "The kids think they're going to hear rap. Our volleyball team has a great home-court advantage."
Opponents also get a friendly needle as they exit the building. After Belton victories Kyle cranks up Queen's anthem "Another One Bites the Dust." He also popped in a quick snippet of "Who Let the Dogs Out" after the Lady Tigers' recent volleyball victory over the Lady Bulldawgs of Copperas Cove.
Their memories are less about themselves and more about the experiences and success of their girls, most notably when Brett helped the 2001 team to the school's first district championship in girls basketball.
Kyle and Pam are such familiar faces that opposing coaches and others who make an annual trek to Belton occasionally take time to chat with them. Kyle's player introductions and game commentary are informative enhancements rather than attention stealers.
From the time the friendly LuAnn Ray collects the gate fee, it's important to the Heitmillers that the rest of the evening is enjoyable where they have ownership.
"Pam and I take pride in what people think," Kyle said. "We want them to leave entertained."
twaits@temple-telegram.com
