And the 2018 BOTF Winner is ...
February 23, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Neighbors present and past filled Buchanan’s gym a week ago to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the school’s 1978 Class C boys basketball championship.
In their midst, another champion built its case to make the community proud once again.
Buchanan's "Herd" is our Battle of the Fans VII champion, adding to its BOTF II title and adding another point of pride for a community that turns out big to support its school, and vice versa.
"This all couldn't have been possible without our community, the support of our teachers and staff," Buchanan senior Jessica Lee said. "The businesses put 'Good Luck to The Herd' (on their windows). Just the whole town supported us. We both represent each other in a way."
Buchanan will accept its Battle of the Fans VII championship banner during halftime of the first Class B Boys Basketball Semifinal on March 23 at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center. Boyne City and Petoskey also have been invited to Breslin to be honored for this season’s achievement.
Buchanan was chosen based on a vote by the MHSAA’s 16-member Student Advisory Council influenced by public vote on the MHSAA’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sites. A total of 9,309 social media votes were received, with those results then equated against a school’s enrollment. This year’s results came out to 5.2 votes cast for every student attending one of our finalist schools – the second-highest average in Battle of the Fans history.
The Council based its vote on the following criteria: positive sportsmanship, student body participation, school spirit, originality of cheers, organization of the group, section leadership and overall fun. New this year, nine semifinalists were selected from the original application group before Boyne City, Buchanan and Petoskey were chosen for MHSAA visits. Cedar Springs, Charlotte, Munising, Negaunee, Pellston and Traverse City West also were among semifinalists.
Buchanan totaled the most public social media support, finishing first across all five ways votes were accepted (Facebook likes and shares, Twitter re-tweets and likes and Instagram likes). Votes were scaled to take into account a school’s size – Class B Buchanan's were worth more than Class A Petoskey's, for example – but The Herd also received the most social media votes total.
Other numbers to consider from this season's contest: The application videos have been watched more than 15,600 times, and the MHSAA-produced videos from our tour stops have more than 2,100 views. The stories detailing the three tour stops plus Tuesday’s explanation of how to vote and the announcements of semifinalists and finalists had been viewed 6,600 times as of 8:30 this morning. The three Snapchat stories covering our visits were viewed nearly 6,000 times combined.
This year’s expanded Battle of the Fans gave us an increased opportunity to see more of our state’s best student sections in action not only longer, but at more levels beginning with organization and planning all the way through execution of some incredible efforts all over our state. Our finalists tour then provided a chance to visit three sections we’ve come to know well – and to see how those sections have grown in their energies and efforts to support their schools and classmates the right way.
Below are our final takeaways from each of those trips.
Authenticity Award: Boyne City
What we saw: This was the second straight year we visited Boyne City for Battle of the Fans, and we were blown away again not just in the promotion by the student-centered Rambler Sports Network leading up to our visit, but by the production of all facets of a game night done right by the Rambler Rowdies and their all-star leaders. It’s impossible to talk about Boyne City’s section and not immediately bring up Captain Rowdy, the inflatable giant mascot funded and purchased by the student section before the start of this school year. As one of the Rowdies leaders said during our pregame meeting, the opportunities to enjoy the new superhero’s antics are endless – and the upside-down head-bouncing Captain Rowdy dance was one of the highlights of this year’s contest. But so too was seeing a few hundred students – from a school with only a few more than 400 – filling the stands to support their boys basketball team from tip-off through the final buzzer.
Why we’re fans: If we’ve learned nothing else from two trips to Boyne City, it’s this – the togetherness and support showed by this student body is absolutely authentic and genuine. What student leaders have accomplished over just a few years is truly amazing, and not at all an act – the Rambler Rowdies love being there and having a blast, down to the band members who asked if they could be part of the cheering section instead of playing during basketball games this season. We’ll surely use as a teachable moment the way the Rambler Rowdies’ leaders took their show on the road to teach younger students in their community how to cheer with the high schoolers. Outstanding seniors who have played a big part are graduating, so we’re eager to see what’s next – but we have a feeling the section will be in great hands.
Model Leadership Award: Petoskey
What we saw: This also was the second straight year we visited Petoskey, and this section again prides itself on cheering for its teams and doing whatever it can to will them to be successful. The Blue Crew is loud – and on the night we visited, this was especially impressive because while the stands were packed for boys basketball, another section of students cheered on the hockey team during a cancer benefit game in honor of a classmate. (That effort wasn’t lost on the basketball fans – they did a fundraiser at their game as well to contribute.) The Blue Crew played out its safari theme to the fullest, and arguably no section in Michigan this year is playing the theme game at a higher level. There’s no question it’s a lot of fun to be part of this section and the fun it comes up with throughout the year.
Why we’re fans: There is a great sense of community surrounding Petoskey athletics, and a lot of it stems from the Blue Crew and the wide variety of leaders who have brought this section roaring back over the last two years. We meet with section leaders before game time during our finalists visits, and the last two years Petoskey’s “crew” has included representatives with ties to a variety of sports and other extracurricular and social groups within the school who come together for common good. New this year was a “rules and guidelines sheet” to guide the leadership as it made decisions, and that will get passed on as new leaders already are being identified. This section truly has been student-built from the ground up, and we can’t say enough about how that work impressed us again.
Battle of the Fans champion: Buchanan
What we saw: A lot of what we expected after three previous stops in “The Woods” – a large group of students occupying one full corner of the gym, chanting and singing and dancing and having just a great time. But hearing leaders tell us beforehand of the section’s “renaissance” this school year gave us a clearer picture of just how much The Herd continues to be immersed in the Buchanan community as a whole – and how the section has hit another new level in 2017-18.
Why we’re fans: Student cheering sections exist to cheer on school teams, and at its most fundamental The Herd provides a ton of support for a variety of Buchanan sports in the fall and winter (and with plans to do so for the first time this spring). But student cheering sections can exist to create so much more as well – and the teary eyes we saw at the end of last week’s visit told some of that story. Unity among grades, among social groups and among students who may have little other reason to spend time together is an incredible thing to behold – and from The Herd’s lip dub application video through its stories of helping new students find a home at the school and others make friends through the student section that they’d never met before … well, we can understand why they tell everyone “there’s not place we’d rather be.”
"We created something from what was created in years past, and made it something we're all part of," Lee said. "Putting all of our heart into something, seeing it become something so amazing ... of course we're going to support (our teams) through every season; we're going to the girls (basketball) game tonight, soccer season and baseball season. But it's just something that was really special for all of us.
"Of course it's my senior year. But the fact that we won something we've been doing my whole time in the high school and being a leader of it finally ... that's so big to me. You have no idea what this means to our whole town and community."
The Battle of the Fans is sponsored in part by the United Dairy Industry of Michigan.
Check out below our stories and videos behind the finalists. Also, click to see student-produced videos from all sections that entered the contest. (Photos courtesy of the Buchanan yearbook staff.)
Boyne City
Read all about it: Boyne City Wants You to Get Rowdy
Buchanan
Read all about it: No Place Buchanan's Herd Would Rather Be
Petoskey
Read all about it: Revived Blue Crew Continues to Thrive
Charlotte 'Flight Club' Shows it can Soar
February 15, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
CHARLOTTE – The time was right last winter. Charlotte’s student body was ready to take flight. All it needed were leaders to show the way.
And a few snow days to prepare for lift off.
The beginnings of the school’s student cheering section were that humble. But the community also was that ready. Over just more than a year, Charlotte’s “Flight Club” has risen from nonexistent to a finalist for this year’s MHSAA “Battle of the Fans,” and while helping to re-igniting the community’s fervor for its sports teams.
An “ugly green poster,” a snow day meeting and some savvy marketing transformed a group of 20 students into a section of hundreds that holds down a corner of bleachers at basketball games, has brought back student involvement at football games and last week took a spirit bus to the competitive cheer team’s league meet while others stayed home to back the wrestlers in their District Tournament.
“Our school is just the right size where it’s like 800 best friends,” senior Bryce Johnson said. “All the people watching the games know the athletes, so you’re going for friends, not because of a sport.”
Charlotte was the final stop on this year’s BOTF finalists tour, which also has included visits to Yale, Muskegon Western Michigan Christian, Traverse City West and Munising. The public may vote for its favorite on the MHSAA’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sites beginning Tuesday and ending Thursday afternoon, with the MHSAA Student Advisory Council taking that vote into consideration when selecting the champion – which will be named Feb. 19 on Second Half.
The formation of Flight Club got a nudge from current math teacher and boys basketball coach Tyler Bartolacci played for the Orioles and graduated from the school in 2007.
Carlson and senior Anna Skrip were students of his last year, when Bartolacci began to hint at the start of basketball season that it would be nice to see more of a student presence in Charlotte’s gym.
Slowly, things started to take off. Carrying what Skrip called “an ugly green poster that said ‘Pep Club’ on it,” seniors spent a lunch hour last winter gathering names of students who were interested in creating a student section. It was a pretty simple start.
The next step came in mid-January during a series of snow days. Five of those now-graduated seniors, plus senior Lindsey Carlson and Skrip, answered a group text and showed up at the school on one of the days off and started hatching what the section might look like. They had a list of goals – chiefly figuring out how to get students to show up, how to get them to be “loud and crazy,” and how to do it all while maintaining sportsmanship.
They decided the first task would be naming the section. They collected 75 nominations from the student body, and an all-school vote made Flight Club the clear choice.
They then circled a Jan. 27 boys basketball game against Parma Western as the official kick off, and were happy with the turnout during a 51-48 win. But Johnson – who was on the basketball team last season – said the Feb. 27 game at Coldwater, attended by about 45 Charlotte students, showed the Flight Club’s potential. “They were with us the whole game, every big play, turnover; it was just insane,” Johnson said. “That’s when people were like, we’re actually quite good at this.”
The boys basketball team ended up making a run to the Regional Finals, hosting that tournament on its home floor. The Orioles lost to eventual Class B champion Wyoming Godwin Heights – but the Flight Club had arrived.
“It wasn’t too hard. You told your close friends, and friends would tell other friends, and the word would spread,” Skrip said. “Getting people to participate at the game was really the hardest. And then … they found out that it was actually fun to do things.”
The fever caught, and not just in the hallways. Over the last year, Charlotte has added a new overhead scoreboard and another section of bleachers to “The Dome” at the cost of a reported $55,000 raised by the community.
“People in the community are still here who witnessed the (school’s) greatness of the (19)80s, 90s. And (now that) we’re finally getting back to that point, the whole community is rallying,” Johnson said. “Every game now, if you drive down the main stretch of downtown, all the orange flags are up in the buildings.”
The momentum of last winter carried over into this fall. The varsity football team finished only 2-7, but senior Tyler Bandy said he could feel the difference from his classmates in the stands, even when his team was behind.
Still, the section leaders – “flight attendants” – came into this winter wondering if interest would remain strong. This time they planned to go big immediately with the boys team’s first home game Dec. 11 against Jackson Lumen Christi. Charlotte won 75-52 – and the place was packed.
“We didn’t know what to expect because of our history going against Lumen. They beat us at everything,” Carlson said. “It was amazing to see people just keep coming in. People were standing around because there weren’t enough seats. It definitely helped our team push past them, and we just dominated.”
The halls were alive the next Monday. Johnson heard classmates talking about how they were going to attend every game this season, how they’d had so much fun. Although Carlson, Bandy, Johnson, Skrip and junior Jess Ramos are among those considered leaders because they lead the cheers on game nights, they’ve received plenty of input – and assistance – from other students, including 25 who spent Thursday evening decorating the school in advance of the BOTF visit.
“We kinda became a marketing team,” Johnson said of the last year’s work.
“We’re going to start a business,” Carlson added. “How to amp up your student section.”
Part of the process has been continuing education, like “Flight School” videos the leaders put out over the last few weeks to keep classmates organized and fill them in on plans for upcoming games.
The camaraderie has allowed for special moments as well. For a Feb. 2 game against Mason, Flight Club leaders saw that the Bulldogs student section would be having a “Storm Out” for junior Storm Miller, who is fighting a rare form of cancer. Without letting it be known outside of the section, the Flight Club came together and wore blue that night – in honor of Miller – and passed buckets around at halftime to collect money for a GoFundMe account that assists in paying for treatments.
Battle of the Fans has become another of those special experiences. The flight attendants had no idea about it until Bartolacci introduced the idea to Bandy during the fall. Carlson’s immediate thought was this was something the Flight Club had become – and the time was now to get out the good word. It’s been a logical next step for an effort that has taken off more than she and her classmates could’ve ever hoped.
“Last year, we knew we loved our sports, and they’re getting really good,” Carlson said. “Our participation wasn’t as big, so (we thought) let’s amp up our student section, support our teams – get them better, get us better.”
“The goal is always to support our athletes and have fun,” Johnson added. “But we actually have a goal now to support our athletes and have so much fun that we can hang a (BOTF) banner at the end of the season.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Charlotte's Flight Club waves its orange shirts after the boys basketball team's first basket Friday against Parma Western. (Middle) Students row the "Flightanic" off the floor. (Below) Flight Club members hold a section-sized banner before tip off. (Photos by Teresa Johns.)