Logo

BOTF V: What You Taught Us

February 17, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

We’ve completed our Battle of the Fans statewide tour for 2016, and hopefully you’ve kept up with our visits and learned why our five finalists are candidates to be known as the state’s top high school student section.

But we appreciate as well the great student sections that entered the contest and weren’t chosen this time for the finalists tour. We try to teach sportsmanship and the best way to support your local teams – but all of our applicants taught us something again this winter.

Here’s a look at what we learned from the 17 student sections who didn’t make the BOTF Finals, but should be celebrated as well:

Tradition never graduates

Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard’s video took us through five years of its student section. The Fighting Irish were a BOTF finalist in 2013, and the section brings a strong effort every year although a new class of students joins each fall and a veteran group of leaders graduate each spring. Longevity and doing it right earns a lot of respect – not only from us, but surely in the community as well as the section has become such a prominent and positive part of student life at the school.

Get inspired

The Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary student section was represented in a local contest last year by a photo of a few students sitting in the bleachers. Things had to change. Driven by the student council and a league Sportsmanship Summit, the Superfans were born – in fact, superfan became a verb to mean taking part. They’re off to a great start.

Wyoming Godwin Heights’ “Fred’s Fanatic Fans” also got their start this year as part of the Promote Enthusiastic Price (P.E.P.) Club, which was created to cheer on the school’s teams and “build the right climate.” We couldn’t have described the right goal better ourselves.

St. Johns was a finalist in 2015 even as leaders were still working to sway the entire student body toward a new, positive way of thinking and cheering. That movement continued to pay off this year; the Redwings were back, bigger and better, and we were glad to see it.

Be proud

Big Rapids has a few more than 600 students, but we could count at least 150 making up a rowdy crowd at a number of events used in the application video. Everything we could see pointed toward what has to be a blast in the stands.

Fulton literally spelled out its drive on the screen: “Small Town, Small Teams, Big Hearts, Big Dreams.” The school has 200 students – and like finalist Munising, showed it can be done, filling the stands for a variety of games used in the video.

Manton’s Ranger Rowdies may number no more than 280 students, but they certainly bring the noise, literally, which was immediately obvious. Most of the student body had to be in attendance for the games they filmed.

Follow the leaders

Similar to finalist Traverse City West, Detroit U-D Jesuit’s section is driven by its student government. A student senate committee is dedicated to making the section (and whoever came up with the wrecking ball deserves a few more votes in the next election).

We know about the strength of Dowagiac’s leadership firsthand after awarding the section the BOTF 2015 championship. They had a lot of leaders showing the way last year, and that appeared to be true again – a favorite part was a line of students arm-in-arm in the front row, facing the rest of the section during a back-and-forth cheer. And the The Attack's chant shown below always will be a favorite. 

Be creative

Tawas’ Brave Cave is full of ideas, starting with in-game interviews of students during an application “broadcast” by TSPN (Tawas Sports Programming Network). Tawas Proud, indeed, and for good reason.

Even if the “D” was upside-down at first on the line of placards spelling out the school’s name in the back row (which was funny), Wayland brought plenty to join the discussion of possible finalists. The “Den” was filled with costumes, signs, and just a lot of material that surely makes for a fun night.

For starters, Pontiac Notre Dame’s name – Irish Thunder – just sounds powerful. It was hard to tell what was going on as part of the “Whistle Cheer,” but it looked pretty wild, especially in front of what appeared to be a giant pep rally crowd (See below).

Involve everyone

Walled Lake Western’s video included interviews with parents and basketball players as well, and one of the athletes said something that especially stuck out: “They cheer the other team and us on.” That’s taking inclusion to another level, and we applaud it.

Utica Ford’s leaders spoke during its application about how the student section was like something bigger than the school itself – something they all have together. And that’s a great thing. (The student section flag was a cool touch as well.)

Holland’s Dutch Nation leaders take getting everyone involved to the highest level, incorporating the pep band and cheerleaders during games and the athletic director and many others at the school behind the scenes. As one said, “We work to spread participation not only for the students, but the whole community.”

Imlay City’s Spartan Nation made shirts like many student sections, but didn’t reserve them for high school students alone – they made them for elementary and middle schoolers and sold to the greater community as well in an effort to get everyone together. (And bringing in Santa Claus for a Christmas-themed game for the younger kids was a neat idea too.)

Ending on one last strong note, we hope Norway is just beginning its BOTF quest. #UKNIGHTED might be the best campaign of BOTF V. They’re “all knights and all united,” and set a great example of getting a community together.

Click to watch all 22 application videos for this year's Battle of the Fans V. 

5 Ways Boyne City’s Ramblers Get Rowdy

January 18, 2017

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

BOYNE CITY – There’s a party going on in the student section at Boyne City, and everyone’s invited.

The streets were mostly empty as we rolled into town for Friday’s Battle of the Fans VI visit – freezing temperatures probably had something to do with that, even in the heartiest of ski country. But we found a full parking lot and plenty of bustle as fans poured in for the basketball doubleheader against Kalkaska – and the Rambler Rowdies “Fright Night,” our first stop on this year’s BOTF tour.

The breakdown: The section formerly known as “Bleacher Creatures” had a pretty good tradition of cheering on Boyne City teams over the years, but interest ramped up during the 2014-15 school year when both the football and boys basketball teams advanced to MHSAA Semifinals. Last winter, with the boys basketball team set to face rival East Jordan in a Class C District Final for the third season in a row, the Rambler Rowdies were born to take support to another level. After losing to East Jordan twice during the regular season, Boyne City won 62-33 – and the section’s name, along with its newfound passion, stuck. 

On this trip, we met with seniors Tristan Stackus, Emma Vondra and Camella Zipp, and juniors Jake Kelts and Ethan Hewitt. Check out the video, followed by more of what we saw from the Rowdies. 

1. They’ve gotten everyone on board

The Rowdies claim to be a true cross-section of the school and its nearly 400 students. In a building that size, students often take part in a wide range of activities, and all are represented. In addition to athletes from other sports, the band is a regular and lined the top rows of bleachers on Friday. And while Stackus, Vondra, Kelts and Hewitt all play at least one sport – Hewitt actually plays on the basketball team – Zipp spends her time in the arts, but is just as "rowdy." The togetherness is personified when the student section enters games as one, instead of trickling into gym as individuals show up. “We’re including more people in it. Our band’s getting more involved. We have kids coming from drama that will get involved because they really like acting everything out. … (and) I feel like especially when we enter as one, it makes us more united,” Zipp said. “We’re all the same. I don’t think of myself as a drama person, or even as the basketball jock.” The section this season began choosing themes for the first time, and all have a voice; Stackus, who administers the @Rambler_Rowdy Twitter feed, gets ideas from classmates on Mondays, posts a Twitter poll so all may vote and then announces via Twitter the winner.

And here’s a spin on seniority we hadn’t heard before: The Rowdies don’t do the “seniors in front and everyone else in back thing,” which in itself isn’t that rare among our annual BOTF finalists. But the Rowdies differ in that they put freshmen near the front so they can’t hide and not cheer, filling behind them with upperclassmen to make for a stronger section front to back. In fact, Kelts led the section two years ago as a freshman – which does qualify as a rarity and no doubt has helped develop this attitude toward mixing up the classes.

2. They’re teaching marketers a thing or two

The Rowdies are selling the Boyne City brand in the hallways, and clearly it’s taken hold. The business plan started in the high school’s marketing class, taught by Tony Cutler, who has served as the architect helping student leaders get the section rolling. The buy-in has been wide-ranging, with plenty of helpers chipping in – keep an eye out in the video for all of the Rambler Rowdy/MHSAA co-branded banners advertising “Friday Night,” plus the other staging created for the event like the cemetery fence and the “R.I.P. Bad Sportsmanship” gravestones put together by additional students who put in outside time to be a part. The message also is taking root in the community – with Cutler’s help, section leaders have made connections that have resulted in local donations of everything from cowbells to head bands to spirit towels.

3. They own the airwaves

This goes with the marketing and branding discussion above, but carries enough clout to have its own point here. The Rowdies make full use of an in-school television station – the Rambler Sports Network – that rivals any in our state, regardless of size of school, with production done by students in the Visual Imaging class (known in the halls as BCVI). TVs all over campus showed eye-catching promos for Friday’s BOTF visit and gave it extra oomph. Students filmed and produced Friday’s game, and their work is now included on broadcasts by local MI News 26.

4. They’re doing it right

Kelts was quick to note the school has won 10 sportsmanship awards over the years, and doing the right thing in the stands is not just talk. In fact, we didn’t hear a negative word coming from the Rowdies the entire night. They focused on cheering their team and having fun. It was that simple, but from our point of view the 100-percent positivity certainly was noticeable.

5. They’re filling the night with fun

The Rowdies packed a lot into “Fright Night” starting with all of the themed decorations and Kelts’ take on Jason Voorhees (from the “Friday the 13th” movies) leading a section full of classmates in black from head to toe. They entered the “Wheelhouse” – their gym – together in something out of a horror movie, sprinting in from multiple directions in advance of Kelts and his chain saw (only a toy, of course). We’ve heard most chants over five years and 25 BOTF visits, but the Rowdies had a few we hadn’t heard before. And the halftime surfing by Kelts – propelled by classmates on the floor on a surfboard covered in what had to be a case of duct tape – traveled half the court and was a highlight of the night.

In their words

Focus on the game: “We didn’t really even think about Battle of the Fans,” Stackus said. “It started out as us for (the team), and now it’s come to where we’re still doing it for them but we need to get bigger. We need more people to make us better, but we’re still doing it for them.”

Players love it: “That Grayling game (a 49-44 win Dec. 13), we were down, and I hit a 3 to go ahead and the student section just erupted,” Hewitt said. “After that, not only are you playing for yourself, but you’re playing for everyone else. … The environment in the gym is totally different.”

An Up North thing: “We’re all small towns and we’re all really close together, and we are rivals with a lot of these close towns,” Vondra said. “But since we’re so small, everybody knows about everything that’s going on. So whenever you get news about something that’s happening in the school or the community, everybody automatically knows, and then they’re just that much more into it.”

Next stop on BOTF: Next up is reigning champion Traverse City West for its boys basketball game Friday, followed by visits to Charlotte (Jan. 28), Petoskey (Feb. 1) and Frankenmuth (Feb. 3).

The Battle of the Fans is sponsored in part by the United Dairy Industry of Michigan.

PHOTOS: (Top) Junior Jake Kelts, in red, leads the student section's roller coaster Friday. (Middle) Fans, some in Jason Voorhees-inspired hockey masks, chant during the win over Kalkaska. (Photos by Boyne City Visual Imaging.)