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Anthony Dinicola “Get’s Weird” for Syracuse Games as “‘Cuse Water Boy” Anthony Dinicola "Get's Weird" for Syracuse Games as "'Cuse Water Boy"

By Mason Horodyski

HORODYSKI: As the first snowfall of the semester touched down at Syracuse University and renovations continue on the carrier dome,students seem less enthusiastic about packing the loud house for upcoming football and basketball match-ups.

HORODYSKI: See yourself going to anymore games this year or no?

STUDENT 1: Maybe.

STUDENT 2: I haven’t been to any this year actually I used to go a lot more when I was a freshman and sophomore, but, uh, it just kind of got old.

STUDENT 3: We have to walk all the way around to get to Gate F over there, so that’s kind of annoying.

STUDENT 4: I don’t really want to go see the team lose.

HORODYSKI: But even if students aren’t flooding the gates, you better believe this guy will be.

DINICOLA: So I just did a Google search and found this bad boy online.

HORODYSKI: That’s tony Dinicola, also known on twitter as Cuse Water Boy, a lifelong die-hard Syracuse fan

DINICOLA: My grandfather actually he ran a concrete company that’s no longer in existence, family run, W.F Sounders and Son. They supplied the concrete back in 1979 I think it was to build the Carrier Dome. So he as part of that deal got four court-side seats for SU basketball and fifty yard line seats for football. So I’m a 10, 11-year-old kid and if you look back at any game clips on YouTube in the nineties you’ll see a little blonde haired kid running up and down behind the SU so I’m a 10, 11-year-old kid and if you look back at any game clips on YouTube in the nineties you’ll see a little blonde haired kid running up and down behind the SU bench, directly behind the bench. That was me, being behind the bench hearing Boeheim use four letter words at players, I’m eleven years old it’s like, it’s the first time I’ve heard anyone curse, it was amazing. I was immediately drawn in, like this is it.

HORODYSKI: That type of energy earned Dinicola sideline passes for Syracuse football and basketball as a fan ambassador, but he says the role has brought him so much more than that.

DINICOLA: Having that two to three hour escape to just let all of your emotion and energy out can be just, it’s almost therapeutic in a way. It’s just a good fun release, and just meeting new people too. I can’t tell you how many people I have met the season, that I may be just new through Twitter who are nameless, faceless people. They just come up to me like “Hey Water Boy! We love you, let’s hang out! Hey let’s get some nachos together!” Just like that community coming together. Like the greatest thing about sports is that you can give all your emotion all your time and all your energy into something that you have zero control over. It’s almost just giving it up to faith in a way. There’s just something so beautiful about that to me. I want to convert as many people as I can. I have a motto, hashtag “Let’s Get Weird”. Like let’s, I want as many people into that movement as I can, let’s go to the game, let’s have a great time.

HORODYSKI: so while it just might take effort to make it to the carrier dome for students, in other time it just takes a little bit of weirdness. For N-C-C News, I’m Mason Horodyski.

Anthony Dinicola, also known as @CuseWaterBoy on Twitter, is bringing his "weirdness' to the Carrier Dome
Anthony Dinicola, also known as @CuseWaterBoy on Twitter, is bringing his “weirdness’ to the Carrier Dome
© 2019 Mason Horodyski

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — There is a reason why the Carrier Dome is called the “Loud House,” and people like Anthony Dinicola are one of those reasons.

Better known by his Twitter pseudonym, @CuseWaterBoy, Dinicola has amassed a following over over 4,000 Syracuse fans thanks to his energetic presence both online and at the Carrier Dome for Syracuse football and basketball games. But even though he is starting to get noticed now, Dinicola has been letting his energy loose at games since he was just a kid.

“My grandfather actually he ran a concrete company that’s no longer in existence [called] ‘W.F Sounders and Son’,” said Dinicola. “They supplied the concrete back in 1979 I think it was to build the Carrier Dome. So he, as part of that deal, got four court side seats for S.U. basketball and 50  yard line seats for football. So I’m a 10, 11-year-old kid and if you look back at any game clips on YouTube in the 90s you’ll see a little blonde haired kid running up and down behind  the S.U. bench, directly behind the bench.”

It was at those games where he discovered his love for Syracuse sports, among other things.

“[I was] behind the bench hearing [Jim] Boeheim use ‘four letter words’ at players,” Dinicola said. “I’m 11 years old, it’s the first time I’ve heard anyone curse, it was amazing. I was immediately drawn in, like, this is it.”

“It” being devoting his entire life to the Syracuse Orange. So much so that he auditioned to be an official in-game host for Syracuse football and basketball games. He would end up as a Fan Ambassador for the Orange, thanks to his idea to do his audition in his now signature blue and orange kilt.

“Everyone else was in a suit, so I knew the kilt would help me stand out,” he said.

But Syracuse infamy aside, Dinicola is happy that his presence at games has brought him much more that just a good time at the Carrier Dome.

“I can’t tell you how many people I have met the season, that I may be just new through Twitter who are nameless, faceless people,” Dinicola said. “They just come up to me like ‘Hey Water Boy! We love you, let’s hang out! Hey let’s get some nachos together!’ Just like that community coming together. Like the greatest thing about sports is that you can give all your emotion all your time and all your energy into something that you have zero control over. It’s almost just giving it up to faith in a way. There’s just something so beautiful about that to me.”

Dinicola said that his goal is for everyone in the Carrier Dome to have a fun time, or as he puts it, “get weird.” But even if you’re not as “weird” as Dinicola, he said that anyone is welcome to sit with him at Syracuse games. Only if you’re wearing orange, of course.

 

 

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