The drum thumps. The chant starts. “Hearts.” Hundreds clap in unison.
Over and over, faster and faster, louder and louder. Thump. “Hearts.” Clap. It’s the heartbeat of a fandom that has enjoyed this inaugural Portland Hearts of Pine season. Sunday night, the Hearts played their USL League One semifinal in Spokane, Washington. Watch parties were held all over Portland, the biggest at the State Theatre.
Thump. “Hearts.” Clap.
The fans’ emotions swung wildly throughout the game, won by Spokane in the most brutal and blunt way soccer seasons often end, in penalty kicks. Now, shortly before 9 p.m., that’s in the future. Now, the band is playing and the fans are cheering as loud as they would at Fitzpatrick Stadium.
Thirty years ago, days after graduating from the University of Maine, I attended a Faith No More concert at the State. It was loud, face-melting American rock n’ roll. The next night, as legend has it, Mel Torme stopped his show when he was hit by plaster falling from the ceiling. We shut down the Velvet Fog.
I’ve been to the State numerous times in the ensuing 30 years, and that Faith No More show remained the loud benchmark, until Sunday night, when Dirigo Union, the Hearts of Pine fan club, and other fans took the place over.
“Just the fact that they involved the fans from the beginning, the fans fell in love with them,” said Naneen Chace-Ortiz, who attended the State Theatre watch party with her husband, Mike. “We loved them before it was a team, when it was an idea.”
Zoram Blancas-Ruiz plays trumpet in the Valentine Band, Dirigo Union’s musical arm. Before he joined the band, he hadn’t played trumpet in 25 years. It took him a few games to get his wind back, for his lips not to ache after playing throughout an entire game. It was totally worth it.
“It’s a party every time they play,” Blancas-Ruiz said.
None of this should be a surprise to anybody. This team came built with a enthusiastic fan base. The Hearts of Pine led USL League One in attendance this season, averaging more than 5,700 per home game, and last month set the league’s single-game attendance record when 6,440 fans crammed into Fitzpatrick Stadium for a 6-1 win over Spokane.
On the secondary ticket market, seats for a Hearts game went for more than seven times their face value.
Naneen spent Sunday competing in a fencing tournament in Worcester, Massachusetts. Admittedly, her mind was already on the Hearts game. At the State Theatre, Mike and Naneen hung the custom flag they had made from the barrier keeping fans from the stage, where the movie screen projected the game. The flag bears the team’s logo in the middle. “Westbrook Hearts” is in the upper left corner, “On Tour” is in the upper right, because they plan to bring the flag overseas to games.
In the lower left, their names, Naneen and Mike. In the lower right “UTFH!” We’ll let you figure out what that stands for, but you also might have seen it on the Time and Temp sign downtown.
Fifteen minutes before the game, a highlight video was shown and the band played. The crowd sang “Ballad of the 20th Maine,” the Ghost of Paul Revere song that has become a staple of Hearts games.
“Stand fast! Ye are the boys of Maine.”
The only time the room goes quiet is when Spokane scores in the 44th minute to take a 1-0 lead. The silence is abrupt and jarring, and doesn’t last long.
Across town at the Portland Zoo, the Bayside bar that has been a Hearts fan favorite all season, fans crammed inside the main bar and the shed to stay out of the rain to watch the game. When Portland ties it 1-1 on Ollie Wright’s goal in the 52nd minute, there’s a brief delay. Did he score? He did.
Then, euphoria.
That lasted through the first overtime, after Jay Tee Kamara gave Portland a 2-1 lead. It vanished in a cloud of abrupt disappointment when Spokane tied the game in extra time of overtime two.
The joy returned in the penalty kick session, but it vanished as if flicked off with a light switch when Spokane won.
At the Portland Zoo, there was brief shock, then a cheer, a thank you for a brilliant first season.
Thump. “Hearts.” Clap.
Stand fast! Ye are the boys of Maine.
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