Debra Gaskill For the Dayton Daily News

08/23/2001
Dayton Daily News
NORTHEAST
Page Z5-1

Riverside friends enjoy rollin’ up, then down; up, then down

RIVERSIDE – `May the Woo be with you.’

What is Woo? Even more important, who are Woo?

Woo is the sound a group of Riverside roller coaster enthusiasts make
when they’re lurching up and down on steel or wooden hills – or
waiting in line to lurch up and down on steel or wooden hills.

The group of five calls themselves Team Woo.

Core team members include Riverside residents Brian Charek, 19, a
second-year digital design student at the University of Cincinnati;
Andy Smith, 17, a junior at Chaminade-Julienne High School; David
Kasten, 19, a second-year mechanical engineering student at the
University of Dayton; Phillip Shafovaloff, 18, a senior and student
body president at Stebbins High School, and his brother, Aaron
Shafovaloff, 19, a second-year computer science student at Wright
State University.

Aaron designed the team’s Web site – www.teamwoo.com – where others
can join Team Woo or post comments about the team’s latest planned
trips or sightings, even purchase T-shirts emblazoned with sayings
such as `Will Woo for Food.’

Member profiles are included on the site, including one `at- large’
core member, BJ Jeffries, 16, who now lives in Atlanta.

Woo began at Kings Island last summer,’ Charek said.We would just woo at random; we’re not afraid to make fools of ourselves. Then we decided we needed to get organized, and we were really shocked at the response from the crowds.’

According to the Web site, the woo, a loud testosterone-filled sound
that is a cross between barking and baying, is the `primary tool that
we use to excite a crowd waiting in line.’

Team Woo will go to any length to get a crowd excited. They’ll clap,
they’ll woo, they’ll even dance in line.

And usually, by the end of the day, Team Woo is recognized wherever
they go.

Team Woo frequently gets stopped by crowds who want to take their
picture, and Team Woo has photographically documented their coaster
adventures in excruciating detail.

The team has been interviewed by a Michigan radio station, which was
broadcasting from Cedar Point during the team’s last visit.

`Fifteen minutes outside of Cedar Point, we’re getting gas and people
are driving by wooing,’Charek said.

Woo doesn’t come from the diaphragm,’ Charek said.It comes from the heart.’

`It really gets the adrenaline pumping,’ Smith said.

What really gets the adrenaline pumping is the ultimate Woo ride –
Cedar Point’s Millennium Force roller coaster, preferably ridden at
night, `although we will ride it during the day,’ Smith said.

`Cedar Point is the coaster Mecca of the world,’ according to Kasten,
although all agree King’s Island has great coasters as well.

`The first hill is the best hill,’ Smith said.

A trip to Cedar Point has its own particular traditions, Smith said,
starting with a stop at the Wapakaneta Waffle House or at the Frisch’s
breakfast bar. Dinner is always at Skyline Chili.

Last week, the team was planning a road trip to Virginia to visit
Paramount’s Kings Dominion in Richmond, home to three wooden roller
coasters – the Grizzly, the Hurler and the Rebel Yell – and three
steel coasters – Flight of Fear, Shockwave and Avalanche.

From King’s Dominion, the team planned on venturing south down the
highway to Busch Gardens Williamsburg to ride the steel coasters –
Loch Ness Monster, Big Bad Wolf, Alpengeist and Apollo’s Chariot.

Brian’s mother, Monica Charek, thinks Team Woo is great.

`You hear a lot of bad things about teen-agers, but these are all
hardworking kids,’ she said.

That’s true. Charek and Kasten work as members of the Dayton Dragons
grounds crew, and Phillip Shafovaloff, a lifeguard when the Woo
doesn’t beckon, has enlisted in the Air National Guard, where he plans
to become an airplane mechanic. He also hopes to get his pilot’s
license one day and become the team pilot.

But even Charek’s internship, scheduled for next summer, shouldn’t
disrupt the team.

`We’ll be wooing from womb to tomb,’ Smith said.