The story of "Nico," aka: @VolsOfficial
By: John Dunn
Founder, Managing Editor, Producer, Host
The All Vol Call in Show
20240708
In our final chapter of Volume Two, "Nico" shares his excitement for all things Tennessee athletics. Growing up behind enemy lines in GA, his path to fandom was carved through friendship.
"I was born and raised in northwest Georgia. I've been surrounded by UGA and 'Bama fans my entire life. However, I took a little bit of a different road when it comes to my love for sports.
It all started in 6th grade when I became best friends with a guy in my literature class, we instantly clicked and started hanging out all the time, inside and outside of school. I wasn't into sports in any way at this time, but his family was the complete opposite. From his father having orange racing striped vehicles, to a full finished basement covered in Tennessee memorabilia that they called "The Vol Cave".
Every single weekend from Friday-Sunday there were sports on the TV, if it wasn't football, basketball or baseball, it was golf or something else. Of course I wasn't much interested in any of it, but we had better not even thought about touching that TV remote to turn those sports off.
With that being said, we were forced to watch sports, and when football season was on, that's what we were watching. I slowly found myself quietly rooting for Tennessee with them, eventually fully committing and rooting for them. That season I got invited to go with them to Neyland Stadium to watch the Vols play Memphis. The Vols won 41-7 and that was all it took.
After the game I bought a Tennessee hat and shirt and never looked back since. I've been absolutely bleeding orange since that day.
I'll never forget having my dad take me over to their house on the weekends, cooking out, swimming, and throwing the football in the yard every Saturday just waiting for Tennessee football to come on so we could all sit in the living room and scream at the TV or going to Knoxville for the weekend with my lovely girlfriend, going to the Knoxville Zoo, grabbing some food and heading to Neyland for the game in the freezing cold and rain.
I never knew about VolTwitter. I'm actually fairly new to it and upon joining so many people welcomed me into the community and it has been absolutely awesome being apart of it! (@c0de_orange & @AnakinVolwalker) to name a couple! I've went from 92 followers to over 2.3k since joining and I'm thankful to have met these guys, they're truly some lifelong friends! I am also Co-Owner of The VolCord alongside @c0de_orange, The VolCord is a Tennessee athletics based discord with over 700+ Vols that like to do nothing but talk Tennessee athletics. I highly recommend you join if you're a die hard Tennessee fan! (https://discord.gg/volcord)
As far as Tennessee athletics as a whole, I believe it's going to do nothing but get better from here. Everyone knows what our amazing BaseVols have just accomplished, so I don't need to speak on that but I believe the football team and the basketball team are due for some great things, and I believe it'll be happening very soon. There's a lot of excitement for vol fans about this upcoming football season with our new 5-Star QB Nico Iamaleava, with an excellent performance in the Citrus bowl against Iowa, alongside a lot of added talent from the transfer portal.
Of course it's not an easy schedule, but no SEC schedule is, considering Alabama and Georgia are on the slate, there's not a ton to complain about.
Dealing with the Bulldogs in Athens is brutal, but the Vols follow up by playing UTEP and at Vanderbilt, where they should be able to take care of business. That's how you ease your way out of a regular season. Best of all, the Vols don't go away from Knoxville for five weeks over the second half of the season. There should be three built-in wins for the Vols this football season. Chattanooga, Kent State, and UTEP but then the Vols take on NC state at a neutral site, I'm nervous about that game and it may be a challenge for the Vols. The Wolfpack might not take the ACC title. but they're good enough to be more than just a skirmish in what should be a wee bit of a home game in Charlotte. There will be plenty of Vol fans there.
I think I speak for all of Vol Nation when I say we are ecstatic for everything that's to come on Rocky Top. I SAID ITS GREAT TO BE A TENNESSEE VOL. FOREVER BIG ORANGE PROUD. "
Follow "Nico" on Twitter/X: @VolsOfficial
GBO and the Volcord is awesome