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'Creatures' Remain Way of Life at TC West

February 8, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

TRAVERSE CITY – Being a member of Traverse City West’s “Bleacher Creatures” means joining 200 classmates at a District soccer game, when the other side brought 20, and then willing the team to an overtime win.

It’s being part of 100 students traveling hour to an opponent’s football Homecoming game – and then working to out-cheer the larger home crowd.

But it’s also uniting with 1,000 students by wearing blue one school day to raise money – a dollar for everyone wearing that color – for the Red Cross after the Paris terror attacks. And it’s taking part in what’s going on in the classroom and the hallway.

Summed up, it’s engaging in a school community that leaders proudly call tight-knit despite being made up of more than 1,600 students.

“It’s just become so deeply-rooted in who we are and what we do. It’s a culture within our school,” senior Cooper Kirby said. “Being a Bleacher Creature and getting involved and doing these things makes kids enjoy school more. I love going to school because I love being a Creature. … It’s a really big part of who I am and so many parts of our students – really a part of their character to care about each other and care about what we do and care about supporting our teams.

“And I’m not exaggerating, either.”

Traverse City West was the third stop on this year’s BOTF finalists tour, which also has included visits to Yale, Muskegon Western Michigan Christian and Munising and will finish with a trip to Charlotte on Friday. (Watch for the Munising report and video Wednesday and Charlotte’s on Feb. 15.) The public may vote for its favorite on the MHSAA’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sites beginning Feb. 16, with the MHSAA Student Advisory Council taking that vote into consideration when selecting the champion – which will be named Feb. 19 on Second Half.

West’s Bleacher Creatures were finalists as well in 2014 and fall under the direction of the school’s student senate. Kirby, this school year’s governor, is part of the Bucket Brigade, the group of 4-6 section leaders named for the buckets they pound during football games. Like previous leaders, he too is able to rattle off names from Bleacher Creature history, like 2008 governor and section founder Chase O’Black.

The student section’s leadership structure has remained much the same. Senators are elected by student vote, and in turn make up the heart of the student section and are charged with gathering as many participants as possible. But last year taught this year’s leaders a few lessons about taking action – and not taking a good thing for granted.

After two years of what they considered amazing sections, this year’s leaders felt a letdown in 2014-15. Some of it made sense – West provides many opportunities for student involvement, and students are invested in other things. But it also felt like spirit, and the Creatures’ efforts, were dwindling.

“My freshman year was amazing; I have so many great memories from sections,” said junior Dani Priest, a senate member. “Last year, it was, ‘Oh, this is fun. But we can do better.’ I think that almost motivated us for this year, especially (our) seniors.”

“I just wanted to make it the best senior year we absolutely could make it,” added Alex Tokie, also a senate member. “Making student sections absolutely insane and (having) absolutely the best sports programs we could make was just going to make my senior year that much better.”

At the first senate meeting of this school year, the group made invigorating school spirit a top goal. They got back to work creating new chants with ideas from the cheerleaders and assistance from the drum corps that during Thursday’s visit provided the soundtrack to the near-constant buzz of 400 students loaded in a section of bleachers at midcourt. The Creatures picked up a chant from a pair of exchange students from the Netherlands and upped their costume game with themes not seen elsewhere, dressing up like dads, chefs and Harry Potter. They also began selecting “Creatures of the Week” who are awarded couch seats in the front row based on their participation.  

Senior Ryan Murray transferred to West in fall 2014 and bought in big-time to school spirit – this fall he was either playing soccer or watching volleyball five nights a week – but he still can’t quite believe how last year’s “mundane” student section has bounced back.

“There are kids passionate about it. To get 250 kids to show up to a game against Petoskey and have every single kid be excited to be there, to be crazy loud, to be dressed up – part of their persona is being there and being in their costumes and things like that,” Murray said. “It’s awesome.”

Communicating events and themes has always been a section strength. One of the lessons of last year is one that can apply at any school – the importance of leadership in giving action to the message. In West’s case, Kirby and his executive board are the start. Those five students then get the other senate seniors excited, and those seniors in turn pass on the energy to their friends, who pass it on to more. Soon, an entire school is following suit.   

And in West’s case, that continues to mean cultivating a culture that has students wanting to be involved, creating memories and carrying on a legacy.

“I said at our first pep assembly that 20 years from now, you’re going to have a job. You’re still going to have a couch. You’re still going to have a TV. You’re not going to have student sections,” Kirby said. “You’re not going to have these opportunities.

“(Bleacher Creatures) are people who like to go to things, who enjoy high school and enjoy what they’re doing.”

PHOTOS: (Top) The Bleacher Creatures, 400 strong, stand together during Thursday's boys basketball game against Traverse City Central. (Middle) The Creatures follow their leaders in a chant. (Below) Leaders of the section pose after a halftime dance at center court. (Photos courtesy of Rick Sack.)

No Place Buchanan’s Herd Would Rather Be

February 17, 2018

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor 

BUCHANAN – Cailin Gunn was new at Buchanan entering eighth grade, and she was shy. What’s more, eighth graders in her district are housed in the same building as the high schoolers, which understandably could be intimidating.

She went to only one basketball game that season, in 2013-14. But the wall of Bucks cheering on their team easily caught her attention.

And then Jessica Lee, another eighth grader that year, and her friends invited Gunn to join the “Herd” – at that point the reigning Battle of the Fans II champion.

“She was scared, and we all took her in,” Lee said. “Because I know it is scary going to a new school. So the Herd was like, we’re open to everyone. Everybody come join.”

Also an eighth-grader at that time, Kevin Frost was tucked into a top corner of “The Woods” as section leaders whose names remain easy to recall helped Buchanan’s become an example to be followed statewide.

“We just got to see them in action. It was just amazing to watch,” said Frost, who with Lee and Gunn is among current Herd leaders. “I don’t know how to describe it. When we won on a buzzer beater at the ‘Mean Stinks’ game – just to be part of that; it’s come full circle. To be down leading everyone else, it’s indescribable.”

The tradition indeed lives on. The MHSAA’s visit to Buchanan for Friday’s boys basketball game against Berrien Springs was its fourth in seven years of Battle of the Fans and the last of three finalists tour stops for this year’s BOTF VII.

We met with section leaders Gunn, Lee, Frost, fellow seniors Madison Schau and Kenneth Stuckey and junior Garret Lollar to learn more about how they’ve both carried on and added to the Herd’s legacy.

As with our first two finalists tour reports on Petoskey’s Blue Crew and Boyne City’s Rambler Rowdies, below is our review of an evening hanging with the Bucks. Following again the format of a typical game night, we begin with the Herd’s suggestions for other student sections getting started and video from our visit and then tell more of the story behind a group that continues to rock the bleachers.

Buchanan’s Gameplan

Take some of these tips from Buchanan’s Herd:

• Be positive – in planning and performance. It all starts with the right attitude, Lollar said, and that starts with the process behind the scenes and carries over to the fun in the stands.

• Don’t be scared. That advice covers a number of scenarios. Don’t be scared to come to a student section meeting with older classmates or many you don’t know. Don’t be scared to share your opinion. And never be scared to dance with your section when the rest of the crowd is watching.

• Make it all about fun. The more fun you’re having, the more tightly-knit your section will become.

• Work together. The Herd has a large group of leaders, but they work to make all of their individual ideas mesh together. That allows them to collect a lot of great ones – and keep everyone in a large group engaged as well.

Pregame Prep

As an established section for most of this decade, the Herd generally enters a school year with a running start.

Tradition and expectations are set, thanks in part to a group of teachers who are passionate about facilitating whatever the Herd needs to be at its best. But students continue to show as well – it’s the usual this year to have 30 or more at the section’s regular meetings.

The Herd from its beginnings at the start of this decade has been about immersing itself in the community. That’s included a lot of things over the years, including being asked to attend events in town that have little to do with the school’s athletics. But it begins with becoming a fabric of the entire school district, which starts in part with section leaders holding “traveling pep rallies” to teach cheers to elementary and middle school students. (The video below was submitted as part of the BOTF "Challenge Round.")

At one traveling pep rally, Gunn and her fifth-grade sister led a cheer together. Another poignant moment unfolded when kids ran up to Lee later on because they recognized her from a pep rally and wanted to show her some of the cheers they’d learned.

“They saw me as a leader, and I like to be a leader,” Lee said. “And I think that’s another thing I like about the Herd: I see myself in them. I was you once, and now I’m … the people who led it before.”

For this year’s application video, the Herd rallied its classmates during the final days before holiday break to shoot a lip dub. Leaders went that route because they wanted to offer something that hadn’t been done as part of BOTF before – but also, the lip dub allowed them to show off more than just a basketball game night. The run through the school’s hallways included appearances by a number of sports teams, school clubs and social groups that all have some ownership in the section.

Herd leaders have an inside joke that while the section has always been good, it went through some “dark ages” before experiencing a “renaissance” this year. This BOTF candidacy is topping things off. 

“I feel like this has been our entire high school (career),” Schau said. “We’ve been part of the Herd since we got into the high school. … It’s something we’ve always done, all the way through. So our passion’s really strong this year.”

Game Time

“Tonight for sure, you’re going to see some bad dancing,” Stuckey said. “I’m one of them, but we’re going to let it all out.”

The Woods are alive from before tip-off until long after the final buzzer. There are plenty of traditions – the speaker system pipes in music during quarter breaks and halftimes for a full section dance party, and during play the cheers and chants are ones the Herd has made regulars over the years – and taught to all of those younger students coming up so they’re ready to step in as high schoolers.

Community indeed runs deep. On this night, Buchanan’s 1977-78 Class C champion boys basketball team was featured for a halftime reunion. As would make sense, the Herd wasn’t really involved – but then received a giant shout-out at the end of the ceremony from retired coach Mike Rouse.

A few other things that stuck out on this night: Halftime kicked off with a full section conga line around the gym. And as it’s done since 2012-13, the Herd finished the night after the game had ended singing a song from the stands with the team and many from the community filling the floor.

Also recognizable were faces in other sections of the gym of at least a few alums we’d seen in years past. That support is ongoing – the Herd has received quite a bit of social media action from past grads sharing their pride. They’ve also seen it from visiting fans and even an opposing player who said his school’s student section needed to step up to Buchanan’s level.

The Woods has been shaking things up quite a bit this winter. On the road at places like Niles Brandywine, where it joined that school’s “Pink Out.” Supporting other teams besides basketball, including wrestling and competitive cheer. Unifying with the boys basketball team on Tie-Dye Night, when Bucks players also hit the court dressed to match. Herd leaders are even planning to have a spring cheering section for the first time, supporting those often-forgotten teams as well.

Some Herd leaders weren’t psyched at first with Lollar’s suggestion of Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be” as the soundtrack for the lip dub – they were hoping for something currently popular. But the 2014 jam has grown into this year’s anthem. And Friday, it seemed like no one wanted to go home when the game was done.

“This is really important to us,” Gunn said, “and we really live that saying – there’s no place we’d rather be.”

Postgame Analysis

Please join us: “Instead of coming into high school and it being scary, terrifying, like (these are) bigger people than you, it’s an inviting thing,” Lollar said. “Because you get to have fun with a bunch of people you usually wouldn’t hang out with. In the student section, I stand next to freshmen I don’t talk to (otherwise) ever. But I’m friends with them because we have this.”

Leave a legacy: “I notice when we go on our traveling pep rallies, we see these kids at the elementary school – they’re not even higher than my knee,” Schau said. “And they know the cheers. I don’t know if I was that age and knew how to cheer, but they know the cheers by heart. That’s what makes me want to do it – because those kids know every single cheer. You just grow up. They know now. They know what to do.”

Shy no more: “All of the positivity and all of these people showed me there’s no reason to be scared,” Gunn said. “Something I learned and something other people should learn is you won’t be embarrassed (because) everyone else is doing it around you. It’s a lot of fun.”

We will remember this forever: “It’s something we get to remember (from) high school,” Stuckey said. “There are many kids who can’t be like, ‘We had a student section and we were able to lead it.’ And it’s nice we’re able to say that. The Herd is a family; we’re not just people who know each other, we’re not just a student section. We all care about each other, and it’s nice to have a family away from your real family.”

Next on BOTF: The Buchanan visit concluded this year’s BOTF finalists tour. Beginning Tuesday, fans all over the state may vote for the student section they think should win this year’s contest. Check out Second Half on Tuesday for instructions on how to vote on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The champion will be announced Feb. 23.

Click to see our reports on Petoskey’s Blue Crew and Boyne City’s Rambler Rowdies.

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

PHOTOS: (Top) Buchanan's "Herd" cheers during Friday's boys basketball game against Berrien Springs. (Middle) Classmates follow the beat as Kevin Frost plays drums during a break in the action. (Photos courtesy of Buchanan's yearbook staff.)