SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Every Sunday, you can find Kenny Bishop screaming into a microphone, leading his fellow Seattle Seahawks fans in support of their favorite team 1,400 miles away from home.
"Sea-Hawks ... Sea-Hawks ..." echoes through the Skeptical Chymist, the Scottsdale bar home to the Arizona Sea Hawkers, the official Seahawks booster club Bishop has been president of during the past two years.
The noise and support for the defending Super Bowl champions is deafening, so loud the chants from the bar can be heard at the nearby Party City.
This has become routine for Bishop and the Sea Hawkers, who have made the Irish pub their 12th Man home since the chapter's inception in 2006.
"We've had people from Seattle tell us we're more rowdy and loud than Sea Hawkers bars in Seattle so I just love keeping the energy up," Bishop said.
The energy of Seahawks fans has caught on around the Phoenix area. Bishop said there were 395 paying club members before Week Seven and 25 more signups during the St. Louis Rams' game in October.
With Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale just 30 miles from the Skeptical Chymist, it will once again be the place to be for the Sea Hawkers, especially if the Seahawks repeat as NFC champions. Owner Trevor Kingston estimated 1,000 attendees during the Seahawks 43-8 Super Bowl win over the Denver Broncos last season, which caused him to close down the outside parking lot and buy out some nearby businesses for the afternoon.
The Skeptical Chymist wasn't always the haven for the Arizona Sea Hawkers, though. The inspiration to start the chapter came from Kingston's brother-in-law, a Seattle native who wanted to band together the Seahawks diehards in the Phoenix area. The club struggled to gain numbers at first, gathering only 10 members in the first year.
Kingston's brother-in-law moved to Florida after the following football season, opening the president spot for Max, who ran the club for the next five years.
Over that time, Max Bishop saw the Arizona Sea Hawkers start to flourish like his beloved team did during their first Super Bowl run in 2005-2006.
Membership increased from the 10 in 2006 to more than 200 by the time he turned over the presidency to his brother, both Seattle natives, in 2013.
The Arizona Sea Hawkers family has grown so large Kingston opened a bar in the East Valley, Fibber Magee's, took over a Tilted Kilt and is planning on opening a fourth Sea Hawkers bar in the near future.
Kenny Bishop believes the Arizona Sea Hawkers are the second largest club outside of the metro Seattle area and Max, who runs the Tilted Kilt, says the growth isn't stopping anytime soon.
"We still have people come in today and say,'Oh hey we just found this place. It's the Seahawk bar, it's the place to be,'" Bishop said.
The Bishops and Kingston have gone so far to make the Arizona Sea Hawkers experience so Seattle-like (minus the clouds and rain) they've partnered with Washington-based brewer Red Hook, which is available on tap at the Skeptical Chymist and is the key sponsor for the club's annual trip to see the Seahawks play the Cardinals in Glendale.
Super Bowl XLIX will be a main event for the Bishops and Kingston, who plan on topping last year's festivities regardless of whether the Seahawks are in the game.
Kenny Bishop admitted he won't go to the Super Bowl if the Seahawks are in it, though, because "we have the best seat in the house right here."
It's hard to argue with Bishop, who wants to get the Guinness Book of World Records to the Skeptical Chymist in an attempt to set the world record for loudest sports bar.
In the meantime, Bishop will continue leading the chants at Skeptical Chymist, hopeful his Seahawks will share the same air as the Arizona Sea Hawkers come February.
Danny Shapiro is a student in Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Cronkite School has partnered with NFL Media to provide content for SuperBowl.com.
