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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.)
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5 Ways Charlotte’s Flight Club Soars
January 31, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
CHARLOTTE – “One night to become State Champions.”
On social media and written at the bottom of its itinerary for the night, Charlotte’s Flight Club made perfectly clear what Saturday’s Battle of the Fans visit meant to a student section that while only a few years old has quickly become one of Michigan’s most accomplished – and is striving to become known as the state’s best.
Students filled stands covering one end of the court at Charlotte’s “Dome” as we enjoyed the third of our five-visit tour on a night saluting local law enforcement.
The breakdown: In two years, Charlotte’s student section has come from nonexistent to become a two-time BOTF finalist. As we learned during our 2016 trip, it was hatched during a series of January 2015 snow days, when student leaders took advantage of the break by meeting and forming a Flight Club to give more support at first to the school’s basketball teams and then to all Orioles athletes. The section gained steam over the course of last school year and especially last winter during a strong start for the boys basketball team, and despite graduating nearly all of its leaders last spring returned in force this fall to become a regular part of student life at the school.
We visited for Saturday’s boys basketball game against DeWitt and met with seniors Jess Ramos, Grant Seavolt, Cassie Cotter, Connor Rosekrans and Ari Beutler.
See our video below, followed by five reasons the Flight Club continues to take off.
1. They have been building – literally.
The Flight Club claims to have more props than any student section in the state, and it’s a strong argument. They sadly waved goodbye to the S.S. Flightanic – a rolling boat they featured last season – after it ran aground in storage. But section leaders came back in August with their tools and paint cans ready. They built a giant “bird cage” out of PVC pipe to house Charlotte’s football teams at their field entrance before they busted out before games this fall. They created a second giant tifo (a.k.a. giant banner seen in photo below) that makes trips to most big games. And we enjoyed watching again as a member of the Club popped from the homemade oversized jack-in-the-box rolled out after the third quarter. A fan slip-n-slide set up for an early football game didn’t really take off, but most of the rest have been big winners – including the face-paint station in one corner of the gym where anyone can get made up to further show support.
2. They got organized.
As noted above, the Flight Club is barely two years old but quickly has grown into a force – and especially this school year as it’s become more organized. They received a new “nest” (our word, not theirs), a classroom where they store their many gizmos and gear and plan their work. White boards on one wall were loaded with lists and maps of the gym showing which sections of fans would sit where Saturday, while newspaper clips detailing their successes filled a bulletin board on another wall and a mural created by section co-creator and 2016 graduate Lindsey Carlson hung next to a letter sweater formerly worn by the dad of faculty section adviser Tyler Bartolacci, a 2007 grad. Section leaders now attend meetings every Monday and others as needs arise, created an itinerary for Saturday that was sent around on social media before the game, and members of the section proudly wore around their necks “boarding passes” – not that they needed identifying, but a neat show of solidarity nonetheless.
And leaders are still giving “Flight Club” lessons – videos over Twitter to show some of the cheers they’ll use at future events.
Be ready for tomorrow!!!! pic.twitter.com/TgbBGSTxxt
— The Flight Club (@chsflightclub) January 27, 2017
3. The pilots guide them home.
Last year, section leaders patrolled in front of the section – “flight attendants” showing the way. Taking the reins during games this year are “pilots,” one on each side of the baseline, standing on risers, megaphones in hand to provide the direction for all to hear and see. On Saturday, new leaders stepped up every quarter to guide the section and unify it for some awesome chants including a drum clap during the first half that will be a highlight of this year’s BOTF tour.
4. They’re making ‘highlights’ along the way.
Most schools with student sections can count on seeing them at football and basketball games. Starting in the fall, the Flight Club selected “highlight games” in every sport to also cheer – and not just for the more popular spectator sports like volleyball or soccer. The Club has cheered at girls and boys swimming & diving meets and at a hockey game this winter despite having only one Charlotte student on a co-op team with Lansing Catholic, Mason and Lansing Christian players. The first highlight game was a girls golf match during the fall, where 10 members of the Club cheered from the clubhouse as their classmates played the ninth fairway. And they packed local Char Lanes for a Neon Out and lots of “Strike, Strike, Strike” for a bowling match. “A lot of kids on the bowling team were really excited to see us there,” Rosekrans said. “They were talking about it the whole next week: ‘Thanks for coming. That was awesome.’”
5. They’ve got P.R.I.D.E.
Purpose. Respect. Integrity. Dedication. Excellence. PRIDE is a school motto, and a large board near the gym doors explains how students should be guided by those qualities in the classrooms and hallways. But Club members also have a lot of pride (the non-acronym meaning) in their school, and have risen as a giant in fan support at a time when Charlotte’s most recognizable sports teams aren’t having a ton of success. Driving their athletes to do their best only makes the Flight Club cheer louder. Students filled multiple spectator buses for football games, load the stands for basketball games, have worked closely with the middle school’s “Junior Flight Club” that also got organized this year, and had no doubts about making another run at Battle of the Fans after making an impressive debut but coming up short of the title in 2016. “Everyone has a ton of fun at the games,” Rosekrans said. “I think they naturally thought, let’s do it again next year.”
In their words
Setting themselves apart: “We kept seeing what we could do to make us champions,” Ramos said. “We wanted to know what would set us apart, and we spent a lot of time thinking about that and trying to see what we did last year compared to this year that we wanted to do differently.”
Memories made: “I made a lot of great memories just through the Flight Club, especially this year with football,” Seavolt said. “It’ been a lot to remember.”
Just say the word: “Get the community involved. People want to come to the games. They just don’t know about it all the time,” Rosekrans said. “Social media. Tell people. Literally, that’s all it is. The power of talking to someone is very underestimated.”
Next stop on BOTF: We'll visit Petoskey for Wednesday’s boys basketball game against Sault Ste. Marie and Frankenmuth for Friday’s boys basketball game against Millington. Click for coverage of our visits to Boyne City on Jan. 13 and Traverse City West on Jan. 20.
The Battle of the Fans is sponsored in part by the United Dairy Industry of Michigan.
PHOTOS: (Top) Charlotte's "Flight Club" chants during a drum clap Saturday. (Middle) Flight Club members hold up two giant tifos during the Battle of the Fans visit. (Photos by Teresa Johns.)