![](/sites/default/files/imported/Photos/200113_BOTF_2H.jpg)
BOTF IX: Time to Show Us Your Best
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 13, 2020
Congratulations, Battle of the Fans IX semifinalists. You've made it to the "Challenge Round."
Consider this quite an accomplishment – but also an incredible opportunity to give the rest of Michigan an inside look at why your student section should be crowned the state's best.
Nine student cheering sections from Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools have been selected from the first phase of this year’s “Battle of the Fans IX” contest to take part in the “Challenge Round” as they vie for this year’s championship recognizing the top section in the state.
This year’s nine semifinalists are Saginaw Heritage, Traverse City West and Zeeland East from Class A; Buchanan, Caro and Frankenmuth from Class B; and Hart, Petersburg Summerfield and Reese from Class C/D.
Battle of the Fans IX, organized by MHSAA staff and its 16-member Student Advisory Council, kicked off by inviting schools to submit short videos, via YouTube, of their cheering sections in action by Jan. 11. The Advisory Council has selected nine semifinalists to accomplish a list of tasks showing off their sections over the next 12 days – and the Council will then select three finalists for MHSAA visits.
This year’s winner will be announced Feb. 21 and recognized March 27 during the MHSAA Boys Basketball Semifinals at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
Semifinalists are required to complete 10 challenges via their social media channels by 11 p.m. on Jan. 25. Five mandatory challenges focus on contest criteria: positive sportsmanship, student body participation, school spirit, originality of cheers, organization of the group, student section leadership and overall fun.
Five elective challenges (taken from a list of 15 options) will allow semifinalists opportunities to show the unique characteristics that make their sections elite. Click for descriptions of all 20 challenges.
“This year’s semifinalists feature some heavyweights of past BOTF competitions, but also some faces we haven’t seen in a while,” said Andy Frushour, MHSAA director of brand management and advisor to the Student Advisory Council. “Over the next two weeks, we’ll learn a lot about what these student sections bring to every game night.”
The Student Advisory Council will select the finalists for announcement Jan. 27 on Second Half. MHSAA staff and Student Advisory Council members will visit all three finalists for home basketball games during the second half of this regular season, with coverage and video from those visits and the announcement of the winner all to be published on Second Half.
The winner will be selected by another Advisory Council vote based in part on support each section receives on the MHSAA’s social media sites. All social media postings regarding Battle of the Fans IX should include the hashtag #BOTF. The MHSAA will share semifinalists’ challenge posts over the next two weeks on its Instagram, Twitter and Facebook sites. The MHSAA also will post from the three finalists visits on those channels.
A total of 20 schools applied for this year’s contest, including nine schools for the first time to bring the total to 105 member schools that have applied for the contest at least once over its eight-year existence.
Buchanan and Traverse City West both have applied seven times and will compete in the semifinals for the third-straight year. Buchanan was the BOTF champion in 2013 and 2018, and West won in 2016. Saginaw Heritage and Petersburg Summerfield also are repeat semifinalists; Heritage advanced to the finals as well in 2019.
Frankenmuth was the BOTF champion in 2012 and 2017 and also a finalist in 2013 and 2014. Zeeland East was a finalist in 2013, and Reese was a finalist in 2012. Hart and Caro are first-time semifinalists – Hart in its second time applying for BOTF and Caro as a first-time applicant.
“We’re basically in the ‘Regional’ round now if you compare this competition to our other tournaments,” Frushour said. “This group of nine is just getting warmed up and preparing for making it to the ‘state finals.’ We’re excited to see the creativity and positivity of the nine semifinalists.”
The other first-time applicants were Fremont, Grosse Ile, Grosse Pointe South, Howell, Lake Fenton, Melvindale, Morenci and Stevensville Lakeshore. Reigning BOTF champion North Muskegon did not apply for this year’s competition. Click to view all applications on YouTube.
The contest is sponsored in part by the United Dairy Industry of Michigan, which promotes Michigan's locally-produced dairy products and nutrition education. Rules plus links to past years’ coverage of the contest can be found on the MHSAA Website.
The Student Advisory Council is made up of eight seniors and eight juniors who each serve two-year terms. The Council acts as the voice of Michigan's student-athletes; it serves as a student sounding board for the MHSAA's Representative Council, assists in planning Sportsmanship Summits, Captains Clinics and other student leadership events; participates in a yearly focus group about the state of high school sports for Michigan State University's Institute for the Study of Youth Sports and assists with medal ceremonies at MHSAA championship events.
PHOTO: Saginaw Heritage "battles" for the BOTF VIII championship in 2019. VIDEOS: Below, check out the videos from our visits to all of the first eight BOTF champions.
![](/sites/default/files/imported/Photos/150127_Yale_2H.jpg)
Yale Kohler's Krazies Rise to Roar
January 27, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
YALE – The magnitude of last season’s Boys Basketball District Final gave Yale’s “Kohler's Krazies” a glimpse of their potential as a booming student cheering section.
But a 90-minute delay during that eventual overtime loss to Imlay City showed junior Karli Klocke how a collection of her classmates watching a basketball game could impact their entire school.
The game was forced into an unexpected break after humidity in the gym made the floor too slippery. The teams went to their locker rooms during clean-up, and many of the 1,000 fans in the sold-out stands took their seats.
And despite the wait, all of more than 100 Krazies stayed through the final buzzer.
“I just like how it brought everybody, all grades, together,” Klocke said. “And during that hour and a half, we were all sitting there together. We’ve never been a group that’s usually been all together.”
Ten months later, the Krazies have ridden the momentum of that March evening – and grown into a top-five contender for this season’s Battle of the Fans IV championship.
Yale hosted the latest MHSAA finalists visit Friday for its boys basketball game against Almont. Reigning champion Beaverton was the first tour stop, Jan. 16, with Buchanan scheduled for this Friday and then St. Johns and Dowagiac over the next three weeks leading up to the naming of this year’s champion Feb. 20. The public may vote for its favorite on the MHSAA’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sites beginning Feb. 17, with the MHSAA Student Advisory Council taking results into consideration when selecting the champion after the vote has concluded.
The Krazies were first-time BOTF applicants this winter, following the transformation of a section that existed on a much smaller and informal scale over the last half-decade.
The former Kohler’s Kids, then Kohler’s Krew and Krew 2.0 before becoming the Krazies for 2013-14 – all in recognition of boys hoops coach Garnett Kohler – previously was a group of 20-40 upperclassmen who gathered to cheer on the team.
With last season’s District turnout helping fuel the effort, new section leaders this fall began organizing a section that would be more inclusive – encouraging the entire student body to take part – and have enjoyed immediate results. The Krazies swelled to an estimated 450 and filled a quarter of Yale’s gym to the rafters for Friday's girls and boys hoops doubleheader.
There hasn’t been anything complicated about Yale’s campaign; it’s as simple as trying to get more students to watch games together. And the Krazies have a rather straightforward goal for each game night; they don't stop cheering, aside from halftime, from the opening tip until the final buzzer – even when Yale's lead tops 20 points.
“This is such a new thing, everybody’s so excited about it and they just want to be a part of it,” junior Kaylee Schiffelbine said.
The Krazies took steps toward formalizing last season, when a group of four seniors sold T-shirts and created some of the favorite cheers. But their vision for the section was “small,” senior Spencer French said, and he and a few others began talking over the summer about how to expand it.
For starters, the section would no longer be about juniors and seniors only. Over two weeks this fall, the Krazies sold 210 section T-shirts – three times more than the year before. They started Facebook and Twitter feeds to get the word out, and parents joined in the social media loop; the Krazies’ BOTF application video enjoyed more than 1,000 views in just a few days after it was posted and now has been watched more than 5,000 times.
“Even with the video, (we thought) it would be cool to get top five (of BOTF),” senior Robert Vinckier said, “but getting the video shared around, it gets more people in the game, and they see how fun it is.
“We’re such good friends with the players on the team, so we’d go to the game whether we had a student section or not. But we might as well have more fun while we’re watching them play.”
The section’s rallying cry for 2013-14 could’ve been summed up as “wear your shirt and show up.”
“Wear your shirt and show up” should now include the word “early.” Although the girls varsity game Friday didn’t begin until 6 p.m., the first Krazies showed at 4:30 to secure seats closest to midcourt and the floor.
And the Krazies are a basketball cheering section in the literal sense. They cheered, nearly non-stop, through the end of a mostly one-sided 68-46 win by their boys team. Of course, they mixed some creative frills – bowling using the Bulldog mascot to knock down a group of fans, and the first superintendent-led roller coaster in BOTF tour history – but those merely kept the mood amped during breaks in play.
The objective is simple as well – be loud. Loud enough that an opposing player tweets that the section is “crazy.” Loud enough to encourage a rumor the Krazies won’t be allowed to cheer at a rival’s gym later this season. Loud enough to force an opponent’s point guard to motion to his bench because he can’t hear his coach yelling in the plays. Loud enough that Yale’s coach and players also had to come up with hand signals so they could communicate over the blare.
“Loud” would’ve been an understatement Friday. The Krazies’ roar, heard standing on the opposite side of Yale’s gym, registered noticeable decibels above the norm for a high school game.
French admits he didn’t know what they were taking on when he and a group of about 10 began meeting twice a week in late October armed only with ideas and what senior Steven Jordan calls “unwritten rules of sportsmanship.” But they forged strong relationships with principal Paul Flynn and athletic director Maureen Klocke (no relation to Karli), who have provided plenty of input while trusting the leaders to police the group when it’s rarely necessary. Leaders run ideas past administrators first, and that has allowed for what leaders feel is a bit more leniency.
Their classmates, meanwhile, have followed the lead and made good on last year’s potential.
“In high school, there are groups. Some groups aren’t going to be there (at games),” French said. “But it’s those kids who are coming out and saying, ‘Hey, what can we do? Can we do this? Are we wearing this? Can we do a costume night?’ That’s been the coolest thing for me. There’s people that I would never think would go to a basketball game, and they come up to me and say, ‘Hey, what can I do to help?’”
Spencer admits he was a bit anxious before the first boys basketball game this winter – until 115 students showed. The school’s athletic booster club has since donated $100 for gift cards to give out as prizes, and the student council supplied a sling shot Friday to send free shirts into the crowd.
“When we started off this year, a lot of people didn’t think it would be that big of a deal; it would just be another student section,” he said. “But as we’ve progressed throughout the season, people realized this is a big deal.
“We weren’t that tight-knit beforehand. Slowly but surely as the season has progressed, the parents, student organizations and administration all have been brought closer together. And we’re not even halfway through the season yet.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Yale superintendent Ken Nicholl leads the roller coaster during Yale's boys basketball game Friday against Almont. (Middle) Kohler's Krazies cheer numbered 450 for the MHSAA visit. (Top photo by Lisa Depelsmaeker, middle by Katie Priehs.)