The death and revival of school spirit
Packed concrete stands. Annoying yet energizing cowbells. Themed clothing throughout the crowd. Horrendous smelling, but captivating colored smoke. This is what I imagined a high school football game to look like when I joined the Classic City Sound marching band my sophomore year, but this was not the case.
Throughout elementary and middle school, I couldn’t wait for high school sporting events and pep rallies. Every movie and TV show I watched convinced me that games would be full of loud cheers and high spirits. What I didn’t know was that I’d be playing my heart and soul out on the clarinet for a few claps here and there.
Before the pandemic, the Cedar Shoals student section was electric. I attended a few games while I was in middle school and it impressed me every time. In both the 2018-19 school year and the 2019-20 school year, students dressed out in one unified color with flags, boom sticks, colored smoke and signs. Students gathered in the stands and rallied behind the football team on Friday nights.
My brother, who is three years older than me, experienced the infamous student section for his first few years. When I asked him about his experience, he explained how the junior class of 2020 went on a mission to revive the student section in the 2018-19 school year. He also emphasized how strong the away game support was that year, especially for the Cedar-Central game that Cedar won for the first time in over 10 years.
But then, Covid-19 hit. With everyone moving to online instruction and fewer in-person face-to-face interactions, the student section died out.
When in-person instruction resumed my freshman year, my class of 2025 was the one to bear the consequences. At the football games, crickets chirped louder than the stands, the marching band lacked energy and not a single pep rally was held, maybe due to COVID-19.
During my sophomore year, more effort was made to reinvigorate the student body. The Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) team organized a pep rally before the homecoming game to build hype around the game and create a bigger turnout. I was very excited as I had seen pep rallies on TikTok from other high schools, and the engagement from students gave me hope.
The entire school was excused from fourth period on the day of the pep rally. The PBIS team placed us in sections by class in hopes of creating class competition. They held contests for whichever class could make the most noise, and when they said, “Freshmen, make some noise!” I knew at that moment that there was no hope. The laughs from the other classes were louder than the cheers. The freshman were uninterested, too busy on their phones to be engaged in reality. I felt embarrassed because I knew that if this was what happened at the pep rally, it would be the same for the sporting events where other schools would see our lack of spirit.
When the football season started, we had no student section. The marching band’s Blue Smoke Drumline created a song played entirely on the drums that the student section used to dance to, but now it was the marching band dancing alone. When the football players entered the stadium, the cheerleaders used to run around and encourage the crowd with colored smoke while the marching band played “Eye of the Tiger.” But now there was no one creating an energetic atmosphere.
A couple games into the season, however, the tide started to turn. A group of sophomore boys, along with a few freshmen, started reviving the student section. They attended most home football games, painted their chests in school colors and swung orange flags. They also hyped up the marching band on occasion, giving us a reason to play louder and more energetically. While they weren’t numerous, they were loud.
Coming into my junior year, I didn’t know what to expect from the students. Would the incoming freshman class create change? Would the rising seniors take on the responsibility of maintaining and improving the atmosphere? At the first home game — the Classic City Championship — I received the answers to my questions. We had home advantage this year, and I was anxious to see how our student section looked.
The student section did not disappoint. Black t-shirts, boom sticks, cutouts of players’ heads and orange-camouflage flags filled the stands. Blue smoke filled the air, pungent as burning wood but as vibrant as the deep blue sea. When we scored in the second quarter to tie the game, the students went crazy. As a member of the marching band trying to hype up the crowd, it was just what we needed.
The student section finally looked like everything I had pictured it to be. Even though it disbanded toward the end of the game when Cedar was down 28-7, it was still a moment I will never forget. While I was only able to view it from afar, it still brought the experience to the next level. I felt pride in my school. As a member of the Student Government Association, this pride gives me hope for future events, like prom.
I hope that this upward trend continues into other sporting events and school-related functions. We may not be on the same level as the 2019-20 student section yet, but we can revive school spirit.
