Boise State’s student section is getting a new identity, and the people leading the charge want it to feel louder, looser and a lot harder to ignore.
Over the summer, six new student leaders were brought in to reboot the group now known as The Stampede for the 2026-27 academic year. Junior Ella Gendreau has taken over as president, with graduate assistant Mateo Bertagnolli serving as vice president. Their goal is straightforward: bring students back to Boise State sporting events and build the kind of atmosphere that makes showing up part of campus culture again.
“Athletics are the one thing that you can bring anybody from any place, any demographic, any club, and everyone is one because we’re all rooting and supporting the same people,” Gendreau said. “We want to bring that back.”
That work started before the school year even got rolling. Gendreau and Bertagnolli spent the summer digging through research studies, talking with athletic department staff, and reworking details like music selections and gameday ideas. Bertagnolli said the result is meant to feel completely new.
The rebrand itself arrived on Aug 11. 2026, when the student section previously known as “The Corral” was changed to “The Stampede” on social media. Evan McKee, a sports marketing graduate assistant in the athletic department, said the switch came from the students themselves.
“There was a decision made by those students to rebrand the student section entirely,” McKee said. “If you think about the literal imagery of a corral, it’s like reigning in horses … the imagery of a stampede is much more vivid, intense, aggressive and chaotic.”
For Gendreau, the idea traces back to a chaotic student section that helped fire up the men’s basketball team in a first home game against Clemson. That early freshman-year experience stuck with her.
“I had never experienced high-fiving the strangers next to me, and then becoming friends with them over one specific game,” Gendreau said. “Just because you’re there to support the same people creates this amazing community.”
Bertagnolli brings a deep Boise State connection of his own. He described himself as a third generation Idahoan with two Bronco alumni parents, and he still remembers his first Boise State football game - the 2014 Fiesta Bowl, when the Broncos beat Arizona.
Before stepping into his current role, Bertagnolli got involved across campus and in athletics, working at the Stueckle Sky Center, interning for Bronco Nation News, and sweeping the basketball court in Extramile Arena. He summed up the program’s identity this way: “It’s always been bleeding blue and being blue collar,” Bertagnolli said.
Now, instead of standing in the crowd, he and Gendreau are trying to shape it from the center. One of their biggest priorities is making freshmen feel like they belong right away.
Each member of The Stampede wants to put freshmen “front row” and “enjoying it the way we got to enjoy it when we were super young and creating that meaningful memory,” Bertangolli said. Along with Gendreau and Bertagnolli, the other student leaders are Kadyn Easter, Aleia Petersen, Delanie O’Brien and Abigale Bibikov.
The new group got an early look at that vision during convocation this year, when they ran a heads or tails tournament for freshmen in a packed Extramile Arena. Bertagnolli said the energy from that crowd gave them a preview of what they want The Stampede to become.
“The [freshmen] are not scared of just being rowdy,” Bertagnolli said. “They have no social embarrassment, so they will do anything.”
The student leaders are hoping that kind of energy translates into stronger attendance at basketball games, with a crowd that can recreate the moments they remember most: noisy sections, strangers turning into friends and a setting that pulls people together.
When they talk with students around campus and show up at involvement events, they’re trying to make one thing clear: every student who comes to Boise State is part of The Stampede.
“We’re hoping to bring an atmosphere that is unlike no other,” Bertagnolli said. “Something that engages all walks of life on campus - between Greek life, between other clubs and organizations, club sports and especially our athletic programs and all of our 18 D1 athletic sports.”
The name change is only the start, according to The Stampede, and bigger shifts are coming in 2026-27 as the student section tries to build a new culture at Boise State.
For Gendreau and Bertagnolli, the message is simple.
“If you haven’t been to a game with The Stampede, you haven’t been at all,” Bertagnolli said.
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