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And the 2020 BOTF Winner is ...
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
February 20, 2020
A standard for Michigan’s high school student cheering sections has been set over nine years of Battle of the Fans.
Carter Aalfs has been part of it almost from the start.
He caught the fever as a fifth grader in 2013, watching an older cousin lead Buchanan’s newly-organized “Herd” to the BOTF II championship. Two years later, now in seventh grade, he stopped into the MHSAA’s finalists interview session with high school leaders to tell us how he already was becoming part of the growing tradition as a member of the younger students’ “Junior Herd.”
He was in the stands for Buchanan’s second BOTF championship in 2018. And this year, as a senior, he was one of the leaders directing from up front, showing his classmates the way to the Battle of the Fans IX championship – a victory that made Buchanan the first three-time winner in BOTF history.
"We've established a place where you can be yourself. You can be outgoing. You can have fun. And you don't have to worry about anybody judging you," Aalfs said. "Many people don't get to have an experience like this where you get to be with all your friends, all having a good time, while also supporting your school.
"Everybody is going to go crazy. Everybody is going to be so excited about it. Just because of all the hard work we put in during the whole season, all the way back into football season. All the preparation it took, the long meetings, and just making it all come together."
Buchanan will accept its Battle of the Fans IX championship banner during halftime of the first Division 2 Boys Basketball Semifinal on March 27 at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center. Finalists Saginaw Heritage and Zeeland East 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 10,086 social media votes were received – the first time the total has reached 10,000 – with those results then equated against a school’s enrollment. This year’s results came out to 3.5 votes cast for every student attending one of our finalist schools.
Buchanan totaled the most public social media support. Combined, the three finalists received more than 10,000 RTs, Shares and Likes on social media since Tuesday, including 6,500 on Instagram.
Other numbers to consider from this season's contest: The application videos have been watched nearly 13,000 times, and the MHSAA-produced videos from our finalist tour stops have almost 2,000 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 more than 6,000 times as of 8:30 this morning. The three Instagram stories covering our visits were viewed nearly 6,400 times combined.
The Student Advisory 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. Nine semifinalists were selected from the original application group before Buchanan, Saginaw Heritage and Zeeland East were chosen for MHSAA visits. Caro, Frankenmuth, Hart, Petersburg Summerfield, Reese and Traverse City West also were semifinalists.
In addition to its three championship years, The Herd was a BOTF finalist in 2014, 2015 and 2018. Heritage was a finalist for the second straight year, and Zeeland East was a finalist in 2013.
Below are our final takeaways from this year’s finalist trips:
Power of Ownership Award: Saginaw Heritage
What we saw: The Hawk Nest has come so far so fast over the last two years, from pretty much nothing to two-time BOTF finalist. Visiting for the second year in a row, we were surprised at first to learn the foundation of the section had changed from being rooted in the school’s Leadership class to being completely student organized and directed. At the same time, students taking the reins is a section evolution we’ve heard about or seen for ourselves over the last decade of BOTF, and there was little doubt the Nest this year was taking its cues from student leaders including representatives from three grades. The Nest showed off another nice turnout for our basketball game visit considering the highly-ranked hockey team also was playing on the same night. Students who did attend this boys basketball game were invested in the action and cheered throughout. We also enjoyed how a wide variety seemed to have roles during our visit, from conducting the “light show” during pregame warmups to taking part in various cheers and a halftime relay competition.
Why we’re fans: We have a lot of respect for student initiative, and we appreciate the Nest owning not only the opportunities to have fun but also the importance of self-policing to make sure everyone is enjoying themselves in appropriate and sportsmanlike ways. They showed us some fun ideas and were up to try new things, and there was a strong feeling from that multi-class leadership that this section won’t drift away any time soon. We also appreciated how they take the show to the football field and ice rink, and do so in force. The enthusiasm was overflowing, and we could feel it.
Be the Change Award: Zeeland East
What we saw: Two hours of creativity and originality poured into genuine support for the players on the floor. The Valentine’s Day theme was pulled off to a T, and we’re sure all involved on this Senior Night felt the love – including mothers in the crowd supporting both the Chix and opponent Hamilton who received roses during halftime. The involvement of the school’s Ottawa County Sheriff’s deputy in leading a wild cruiser ride was memorable, and the middle school breakdancer unforgettable. We like to dissuade sections from playing with potentially messy confetti or glitter, but the blast of pink and silver into the air over The Coop looked pretty awesome. Coop Crazies say it’s all about the party – and we felt like they were throwing the biggest bash in town.
Why we’re fans: A lot of student sections say, “This is our year. We’re going to change some things.” Coop leaders actually had the courage and put in the work to do it. Underwhelmed by their student section experience the last three years, a group of seniors took over and quickly rewrote the script. The question moving forward is how the next group of leaders will mold the section – but if they can keep the creativity and party atmosphere going, this will be a section to contend with for years to come.
Battle of the Fans champion: Buchanan
What we saw: There’s a line here between not saying enough about this year’s Herd and having already said it all, and we’re straddling it because we’ve had an opportunity to see Buchanan in action a number of times over the years. But as we stated in our original report last week, something did catch our attention – from the front row to the back and across the section through the Junior Herd youngsters who joined in, everyone was all in all the time during our Tuesday night visit, and without special rallying cries needed to keep it up. The Herd, standing together, was naturally cohesive and fun, which comes with really wanting to be there and be a part. The section was loud from start to finish, every possession and every break, and always engaged in the action. But there’s more to it.
Why we’re fans: The first time we visited Buchanan, in 2013, the takeaway was a new student cheering section had changed school culture dramatically over just a few short months. Now that culture is ingrained in every grade from elementary school up. People have asked over the years if this Herd lifestyle is real or just a show – and we’re here to tell you, it’s absolutely authentic.
The Herd experience sends outgoing seniors into tears and brings past leaders back to watch those who have followed them. It has now linked nearly a decade’s worth of students – and continues to set an example any school would be wise to follow.
And Buchanan is glad to be that example. Over the years, Herd leaders have been sought out by other student sections across the state, and even some from other states, asking for advice on how to do something similar at their schools.
Aalfs and his classmates are glad to show anyone the ropes, that those schools too might enjoy some of what he and his friends have grown up with and grown to love about their high school experience.
"It's going to leave me with such great memories that I'm going to remember for the rest of my life," Aalfs said. "Just being around everybody, everybody being so positive. It's crazy."
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 Buchanan High School.)
Buchanan
Read all about it: Have You Herd? Buchanan Tradition Lives On
Saginaw Heritage
Read all about it: Heritage's Hawk Nest Taking Charge
Zeeland East
Read all about it: Zeeland East's Coop Crazies Share the Love
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Have you Herd? Buchanan Tradition Lives On
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
February 14, 2020
BUCHANAN – Every year cheering in Buchanan High School’s student section is different – a different mix of students guarantees a different leadership style, different ideas and different levels of creativity.
But let’s not confuse different with new. Buchanan has built one of the state’s richest student section traditions, and with the accolades to back it up – Battle of the Fans championships in 2013 and 2018 and four other finals finishes.
There’s no forgetting The Herd’s past. And why would anyone want to try?
Section leaders going back nearly a decade are recalled as famously as any recent star athlete. Current section leaders readily recall when they, as elementary students, learned Herd staple cheers like “Geronimo” from those past all-stars during visits – traveling pep rallies – to their elementary and middle schools.
Photos from years past adorn classroom walls, stoking memories and new ideas. And past Herd campaigns like “Mean Stinks” and “Don’t be a Bully” provide memories of growing up in a school and community that has become known as a standard-setter for student section support – and added to the legacy with another BOTF finalist tour visit Tuesday for its boys basketball game against Watervliet.
“We've been doing this for so long. It's just like an expectation,” Buchanan junior Mia Struss said. “It's what we do. It's what Buchanan does. Everybody comes together on Friday nights. Or like this (visit) happened on a Tuesday – we know we're going to have fun, so we're just like ‘Come out’ or ‘Are you guys going to the game? Oh yeah! Absolutely, we're going to the game.’ Everybody just comes together and has a fun time because it's what we do. It's what we're used to doing.”
There’s a well-worn path from the MHSAA’s East Lansing office to Buchanan during Battle of the Fans season.
As noted above, this was our sixth visit in nine years of BOTF, and current seniors were in fifth grade the first time we made the trip. We know how the section got started, we readily can recall leaders we’ve met in the past and cheers that pop immediately into our heads when we even think about coming back to see The Herd.
But instead of relying on that knowledge, we approached Tuesday like we’d never been to Buchanan before. We asked the assembled leaders – seniors Carter Aalfs, Nora Kaltenbach, Jade Smith, Rose Johnson and Bobby Ruth and juniors Ty Scurlock and Mia and her twin sister Morgan Struss – the questions we always ask. How did this get started? What has this meant to your school? Why did you get involved?
Their answers could’ve been word for word what Herd leaders told us in 2013 or 2018 or during any other trip. The conversation just reinforced how ingrained the cheering section has all the way down to the elementary students dreaming of joining in when they are older.
As they joked – but maybe not? – The Herd is a lifestyle.
This is how they live.
Game Time
Buchanan had to deal with a bit of a curveball this BOTF season. Originally, the Herd was going to host the MHSAA on Friday, Jan. 31. But a school-wide illness knocked out the Bucks’ opponent for that night, and the only feasible make-up for the BOTF visit was a Tuesday – generally the lesser-anticipated night for a big crowd compared to a Friday anywhere in the state.
But the move to a Tuesday only seemed to psych The Herd up more.
“It’s a challenge. But we’ve taken it and made it into something that’s normal,” Morgan Struss said.
“We can totally do this,” sister Mia figured. “Yes, it’s a Tuesday. But we’re The Herd. We got it.”
Leaders have an eight-year library of cheers, chants, dances and more to draw from, to go with ideas they’ve cooked up for this school year.
Leaders made sure to tell us this year they have added four new dances to the repertoire. And those were folded nicely into a night of what we’ve come to expect from near-annual trips to “The Woods.”
“We love to keep stuff, but we always like to think outside the box, get new things in and keep some of the old things,” Aalfs said. “And sometimes we'll bring back other things that we've taken out. It’s kinda like a cycle.”
Considering again this was a Tuesday night, the stands were filled – not just the student section, but both sides of the court – which makes sense with the perspective that a school with just more than 400 9th-12th grade students sold 1,200 Herd T-shirts this year to fund the section, provide for local families in need and fund scholarships.
“Neon Night” predictably was a hit, not just with the nearly 200 high schoolers filling their set of bleachers, but also the 30 or more middle school and younger students who formed a “Junior Herd” next to them.
Following a lights-out introduction of the home team, there were cheers for individual players and some kind of activity during every timeout and quarter break until the end of a 22-point win. Halftime included a senior class dance and a five-minute mashup of signing and grooving. Another new addition came at the end of the game, when students formed a long tunnel for the team to leave the court – and then joined together at midcourt one more time for The Herd’s signature “B-U-C-K-S Bucks!” chant.
Back to every year being “different.” Leaders had a tough time putting it into words at first before settling on “effortless” to describe the enthusiasm and cohesiveness of this year’s Herd. And frankly, we could tell the difference too as every student in the stands from front to top seemed engaged and having fun from warmups through the final buzzer.
“(This year) it's truly a feeling of unity,” Ruth added. “You don't understand how amazing it feels just looking up into those stands and just seeing everybody. I'm down on the floor, I'm saying my cheers, I'm leading everybody, and it's so great just seeing everybody all stacked up.”
Be like Buchanan
Take some of these tips from The Herd:
Find a teacher, find a friend: The Herd absolutely benefits from that trio of teachers – “shepherds” – who are dedicated to giving their time and whatever else the section needs. That, and administrative support, go a long way in helping a section get started and need to be cultivated. At the same time, it doesn’t take a lot of student power to get something going. Find a friend, or a few, tell other students you have a plan for the game coming up and just show up and do your thing. Do that once or a few times, and something is bound to take root and grow.
Open the gates: Herd leaders want anyone and everyone from all grades, friend groups, teams and clubs, etc., to be involved – and that’s part of its allure. Tuesday’s visit included something of a welcome with “MHSAA” painted on students’ backs, and one of the students had been at the school all of a week – but already had been pulled into a section meeting and Herd Snapchat. “Everybody's accepted at Buchanan, and we don't exclude anybody,” Ruth said. “It feels so nice to have everybody around. The more people, the more energy and spirit that I feel when we're having meetings and games and everything.”
Embrace trial and error. Because it’s fun: Not every chant or cheer or song is going to work. And that’s fine. Most great discoveries come after the first try. As long as ideas are reasonable, try them out. It’s a great way to find a section identity, and also to keep people engaged in coming up with ideas to help build it.
Make a plan: Once you’ve got a few ideas for theme nights, or a few cheers that have worked and taken hold, make a plan for game night – especially big ones where you’re hoping to get a lot of students to join in. That way you’re not left trying to figure out what’s next on the fly, and your classmates will get hooked on being part of something organized and well-led.
They said it best
Embrace the opportunity: “Come in with an open mind,” Smith said. “Don't be like, ‘That's lame. I'm too cool for that.’ What's the worst that will happen? People will laugh. Laugh with them. In the end you're actually enjoying yourself – you're having more fun than those people judging you.”
Trust me: “I always viewed (The Herd) as an icon, like what people go to see, and I never viewed it as something to do,” Scurlock said. “I always went there to watch them, or I was playing basketball. This year it was different. Last year I was behind them in the stands, going with them, but I wasn't consistent with it. Now that I’m in it, I wish I did it before. I regret it a lot. … I’ll ask my friends if they want to do this or that (with The Herd), and they’ll say they, ‘Nah, I don’t want to do that.’ I say, ‘Trust me, you do. You just don’t realize it.’”
Great expectations: “I started two years ago, and just looking at the class that had graduated that year (in 2018), that had started everything, that class was full of a lot of my friends and I felt very inspired looking at them,” Ruth said. “So I felt like this year, I really had to own up to that and say, ‘Hey, listen.’ I need to do what they did.”
They’ve got next: “When we go into traveling pep rallies, we're like, ‘Hey, this is going to be you someday. You're going to have to fill our shoes eventually.’ We're just trying to prepare them as much as possible so it will be a fun time for them.” Johnson said of the younger students coming up. “Whenever we say a chant, like ‘Do you know this chant?’ They're like yeah, and they start doing it. So it's just exciting. They just know us and know all the chants and what we do.”
Next stop on BOTF: We will finish the 2020 BOTF tour at Zeeland East with tonight’s boys basketball game against Hamilton. Our coverage of that trip will be posted to Second Half on Monday, and social media voting will begin Tuesday and continue through Thursday. The Battle of the Fans IX champion will be announced Feb. 21.
The Battle of the Fans is sponsored in part by the United Dairy Industry of Michigan.
PHOTOS: (Top) Buchanan students cheer on their classmates during Tuesday’s boys basketball game against Watervliet. (Middle) Senior Carter Aalfs gets plenty of air while leading the section’s roller coaster. (Photos by Jessica Elliott.)