by KEITH HEJNA
GoPSUsports.com
t Penn State, Rene Portland is larger than life ?C so large that she has her own ??Mini Rene.??
If you have been to a Lady Lions home game in the last four years, then you must have noticed Mini Rene, Mini Troyan and The Other Lady Lions (TOLL) standing crosscourt from Coach Portland, Coach Troyan and the actual Lady Lions. They have quickly become a staple in the team??s support system.
??It would be awful [if they stopped coming],?? Portland said. ??You know you??ve lost it when you??ve lost them.??
The Beginning
It all started in the 2003 spring semester when Ben Gordon and John Gabrois were named fans of the game for painting their bodies blue and white.
??I don't really know why we ended up going to the game like we did,?? Gordon recalled. ??[We] kind of had crushes on two of the players: Kelly Mazzante and Melanie Croser.??
Their friends in The Penn State Blue Band enjoyed it, as did the Lady Lions, so they decided to make it a routine.
TOLL was born.
About 10 members of the Penn State drumline began painting white jerseys on their torsos and cheering on the team at every home game. There was an ??Other Lady Lion?? for each Lady Lion on the team.
Aaron Miller, an original member of TOLL, was dating a junior piccolo player named Katie Bogniak at the time. In order to get her involved, they told her she could be the coach ?C Mini Rene. The first draft of her Mini Rene costume included a blonde wig that was part of her roommate??s Halloween costume.
??The first year of TOLL, we played down at Tennessee for the Sweet Sixteen and a girl with brown hair came up to me and said, ??I??m Mini Rene,???? said Portland. ??She didn??t look like me, but in her bag she had the blonde wig. I was like, ??Oh my God, I just met Mini Rene!????
The Legacy
Four years later, a professional wig, tailored to match Portland??s hairstyle, has replaced the original, tattered wig. The tradition, however, retains the original passion that it started with.
In order to keep TOLL alive after she left, the Bogniak decided that she would pass the wig on to her youngest sister, Jess.
??When Katie graduated she said to me, ??When you get here, you??re going to be Mini Rene,???? Jess said. ??And I said, ??No way. That??s ridiculous ?C dressing up in a wig at women??s basketball games, no way!??
In fact, Jess and her older sister, Sara Bogniak, used to watch their oldest sibling on ESPN and laugh. However, the embarrassment that Jess once felt has turned to pride as she has embraced the tradition with open arms.
??Katie took it to places that were pretty amazing,?? Portland said. ??The legacy in her family is pretty awesome.??
Since Jess was still in high school when her sister graduated, Katie interviewed Blue Band members and ultimately chose Kristin Schultz as her successor.
Last year Jess Volpe, the younger sister of one of the original TOLL members, Jason Volpe, filled the position of Mini Rene.
This year, she promoted the younger Bogniak from her role as Mini Troyan to Mini Rene ?C associate head coach to head coach.
Her job as head coach of TOLL involves sending out weekly emails and making sure her ??team?? is at the Bryce Jordan Center 15 minutes before the gates open so that they can secure the first row of the student section.
The Future
Katie Bogniak is no longer Mini Rene. In fact, she is no longer Katie Bogniak. She ended up marrying Miller, her college sweetheart and former TOLL member.
??I should have been at that wedding!?? Portland joked.
Though Katie is no longer Mini Rene, she still receives the emails and gets that familiar feeling when she watches the games. ??Katie sits back and watches and gets jealous of me,?? said Jess.
Although she wishes she could be back on the court in her blonde wig, Katie is glad that the tradition has survived and that TOLL continues to do its job of pumping up the crowd and the team.
So is Portland. ??I don??t know [why they started it],?? she said, ??but I??m grateful it happened.??