Herd dat? Buchanan Back for BOTF III
January 21, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
BUCHANAN – Andi Frost might be walking the hall between classes with some of her senior friends when a freshman will approach and ask about the next theme night.
Or a quick trip to the gas station could turn into a conversation with locals about what she and her classmates have planned for Friday’s basketball game.
Once, during a trip to a few miles south to Steak & Shake in South Bend, a patron from across the border noticed her “Herd” shirt and asked if she was from Buchanan.
Plenty of notice has come this small town’s way since “The Herd” student cheering section won last year’s MHSAA Battle of the Fans II. No question, the championship helped some find the small southwestern school on the map – including one Twitter follower who made contact from Nebraska.
The recognition has been fun and the friendly comments from all over the state much appreciated. But the best to come from last year’s formation of The Herd, without doubt, is the sense of togetherness that was cultivated in the bleachers but has infused the entire community.
“The best thing that happened from this whole experience is that it’s even higher than a title now,” Frost said. “It’s our way of life in Buchanan. It’s the whole school, all the teachers, everyone in the community. Grandparents, moms, dads and little brothers; it’s the whole town.
“You sense it in the building; we’re not just a school with different grades. We know everybody now. Everybody has become a big family.”
Buchanan on Friday was the first stop on this season’s Battle of the Fans III finalists tour. MHSAA staff and Student Advisory Council members will visit Beaverton, Bridgman, Frankfort and Traverse City West for home games later this month and during the first two weeks of February. The winner will be determined by an Advisory Council vote weighted by a public vote on the MHSAA’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sites from Feb. 18-20. The champion will be announced Feb. 21 and recognized March 21 during the Boys Basketball Semifinals at Michigan State’s Breslin Center.
Buchanan’s Herd got its start during an MHSAA Sportsmanship Summit during fall 2012 after a presentation on the benefits of a positive, fun student cheering section and the Battle of the Fans contest in particular.
Section leaders and teacher “shepherds” did some quick work to make The Herd formidable – and start the ball rolling toward a culture change in the school and a new unity felt throughout the town of roughly 4,500 residents.
This school year, The Herd came back – and this time much more organized.
Nearly 40 students showed up for the section’s first meeting last spring as it looked ahead to 2013-14. A group of roughly 60 – or 13 percent of the student body – came to another planning meeting over the summer.
Leaders of the section realized early that with so much interest, organization would be key. They split their classmates into small groups and gave each a task – coming up with theme night ideas, new cheers or planning pep rallies or “traveling pep rallies” to the middle and elementary schools.
What emerged was a fall schedule that included plans for attending not only home football games, but also Herd gatherings at volleyball and soccer games and a cross country race. The section has a full line-up for its home basketball games, both boys and girls, including individual cheers for every player and 22 cheers/chants/dances to break out during time-outs.
“We’ve made such a big deal out of all of this, there’s such good positivity everywhere, and everyone just loves it. So we definitely want to keep it as a tradition,” said junior Ellie Hurd, also a section leader last year as a sophomore.
One of the reigning champ’s biggest challenges this fall was coming up with fresh material to blend in with some that leaders wanted to carry over from the section’s inaugural season.
Last year’s favorites are mixed with versions of more recently popular “Timber” and “Wrecking Ball.” Pregame introductions are still lights-out with Herd members providing cell phone spotlights. And the Herd continues to sing the national anthem before games, on this night with Frost on the microphone leading the crowd.
Perhaps the most compelling part of Buchanan’s victory story in 2013 centered on one of the section’s main motivations – the untimely death the summer before of classmate Dilan Shearer. Another challenge this past summer was deciding how best to continue on while keeping intact the togetherness that sad event helped create.
Similar to last season – when the section finished game nights by singing Shearer’s favorite song, “Springsteen” – every home night this winter ends with another community song – Jason Aldean’s “Tattoos On This Town.”
“Last year we had all of that positive energy taking something bad, some sadness, and we turned it into something better,” Martinez said. “This year, we turned what we did last year, all of the good things that happened, and made it into something more.”
The Herd isn’t just about showing up strong at games. They’re frequently called to show up at events in the community and have used their powers of influence to help their neighbors – raising roughly $1,300 plus clothing donations after a local apartment fire and a few thousand dollars to assist community supporter Don Ross, who died Thursday after suffering from Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
“‘It’s left our mark on us, and we’ve left our mark on it,’ and that’s what we’ve done,” Frost said, referring to a favorite lyric from Aldean’s song.
“We’ve built everlasting memories,” Martinez added, “just by all of the stuff we’ve done with The Herd.”
Filling the stands for every home varsity hoops game meant five nights of basketball last week. But the Herd showed en masse, and it’s fair to believe made a difference – the boys team in particular hasn’t lost a home game since the first of 2012-13 and came back from 20 points down to beat a rival earlier this season.
When senior A.J. Reed’s seventh grade brother told A.J. he was considering leading The Herd in high school instead of playing basketball, A.J. was stunned (and told his brother to stick with his sport). But in just over a year, the section has established that level of presence within the school.
“Traditional high schools, you think about if they have a good football team or a good basketball team every year,” said Reed, who like other section leaders plays at least one sport. “I think when a lot of people think of us, now recently, they’ve thought of the student section. It’s almost like a sport to us. We are a team.”
Battle of the Fans III is sponsored in part by the United Dairy Industry of Michigan.
PHOTOS: (Top) Buchanan's "Herd" and its boys basketball team gather for "Tattoos On This Town" after Friday's win over Niles Brandywine. (Middle) Members of the student section lock in for a rollercoaster ride during halftime Friday. (Photos courtesy of Jessica Cornelius.)
And the 2018 BOTF Winner is ...
February 23, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Neighbors present and past filled Buchanan’s gym a week ago to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the school’s 1978 Class C boys basketball championship.
In their midst, another champion built its case to make the community proud once again.
Buchanan's "Herd" is our Battle of the Fans VII champion, adding to its BOTF II title and adding another point of pride for a community that turns out big to support its school, and vice versa.
"This all couldn't have been possible without our community, the support of our teachers and staff," Buchanan senior Jessica Lee said. "The businesses put 'Good Luck to The Herd' (on their windows). Just the whole town supported us. We both represent each other in a way."
Buchanan will accept its Battle of the Fans VII championship banner during halftime of the first Class B Boys Basketball Semifinal on March 23 at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center. Boyne City and Petoskey 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 9,309 social media votes were received, with those results then equated against a school’s enrollment. This year’s results came out to 5.2 votes cast for every student attending one of our finalist schools – the second-highest average in Battle of the Fans history.
The 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. New this year, nine semifinalists were selected from the original application group before Boyne City, Buchanan and Petoskey were chosen for MHSAA visits. Cedar Springs, Charlotte, Munising, Negaunee, Pellston and Traverse City West also were among semifinalists.
Buchanan totaled the most public social media support, finishing first across all five ways votes were accepted (Facebook likes and shares, Twitter re-tweets and likes and Instagram likes). Votes were scaled to take into account a school’s size – Class B Buchanan's were worth more than Class A Petoskey's, for example – but The Herd also received the most social media votes total.
Other numbers to consider from this season's contest: The application videos have been watched more than 15,600 times, and the MHSAA-produced videos from our tour stops have more than 2,100 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 6,600 times as of 8:30 this morning. The three Snapchat stories covering our visits were viewed nearly 6,000 times combined.
This year’s expanded Battle of the Fans gave us an increased opportunity to see more of our state’s best student sections in action not only longer, but at more levels beginning with organization and planning all the way through execution of some incredible efforts all over our state. Our finalists tour then provided a chance to visit three sections we’ve come to know well – and to see how those sections have grown in their energies and efforts to support their schools and classmates the right way.
Below are our final takeaways from each of those trips.
Authenticity Award: Boyne City
What we saw: This was the second straight year we visited Boyne City for Battle of the Fans, and we were blown away again not just in the promotion by the student-centered Rambler Sports Network leading up to our visit, but by the production of all facets of a game night done right by the Rambler Rowdies and their all-star leaders. It’s impossible to talk about Boyne City’s section and not immediately bring up Captain Rowdy, the inflatable giant mascot funded and purchased by the student section before the start of this school year. As one of the Rowdies leaders said during our pregame meeting, the opportunities to enjoy the new superhero’s antics are endless – and the upside-down head-bouncing Captain Rowdy dance was one of the highlights of this year’s contest. But so too was seeing a few hundred students – from a school with only a few more than 400 – filling the stands to support their boys basketball team from tip-off through the final buzzer.
Why we’re fans: If we’ve learned nothing else from two trips to Boyne City, it’s this – the togetherness and support showed by this student body is absolutely authentic and genuine. What student leaders have accomplished over just a few years is truly amazing, and not at all an act – the Rambler Rowdies love being there and having a blast, down to the band members who asked if they could be part of the cheering section instead of playing during basketball games this season. We’ll surely use as a teachable moment the way the Rambler Rowdies’ leaders took their show on the road to teach younger students in their community how to cheer with the high schoolers. Outstanding seniors who have played a big part are graduating, so we’re eager to see what’s next – but we have a feeling the section will be in great hands.
Model Leadership Award: Petoskey
What we saw: This also was the second straight year we visited Petoskey, and this section again prides itself on cheering for its teams and doing whatever it can to will them to be successful. The Blue Crew is loud – and on the night we visited, this was especially impressive because while the stands were packed for boys basketball, another section of students cheered on the hockey team during a cancer benefit game in honor of a classmate. (That effort wasn’t lost on the basketball fans – they did a fundraiser at their game as well to contribute.) The Blue Crew played out its safari theme to the fullest, and arguably no section in Michigan this year is playing the theme game at a higher level. There’s no question it’s a lot of fun to be part of this section and the fun it comes up with throughout the year.
Why we’re fans: There is a great sense of community surrounding Petoskey athletics, and a lot of it stems from the Blue Crew and the wide variety of leaders who have brought this section roaring back over the last two years. We meet with section leaders before game time during our finalists visits, and the last two years Petoskey’s “crew” has included representatives with ties to a variety of sports and other extracurricular and social groups within the school who come together for common good. New this year was a “rules and guidelines sheet” to guide the leadership as it made decisions, and that will get passed on as new leaders already are being identified. This section truly has been student-built from the ground up, and we can’t say enough about how that work impressed us again.
Battle of the Fans champion: Buchanan
What we saw: A lot of what we expected after three previous stops in “The Woods” – a large group of students occupying one full corner of the gym, chanting and singing and dancing and having just a great time. But hearing leaders tell us beforehand of the section’s “renaissance” this school year gave us a clearer picture of just how much The Herd continues to be immersed in the Buchanan community as a whole – and how the section has hit another new level in 2017-18.
Why we’re fans: Student cheering sections exist to cheer on school teams, and at its most fundamental The Herd provides a ton of support for a variety of Buchanan sports in the fall and winter (and with plans to do so for the first time this spring). But student cheering sections can exist to create so much more as well – and the teary eyes we saw at the end of last week’s visit told some of that story. Unity among grades, among social groups and among students who may have little other reason to spend time together is an incredible thing to behold – and from The Herd’s lip dub application video through its stories of helping new students find a home at the school and others make friends through the student section that they’d never met before … well, we can understand why they tell everyone “there’s not place we’d rather be.”
"We created something from what was created in years past, and made it something we're all part of," Lee said. "Putting all of our heart into something, seeing it become something so amazing ... of course we're going to support (our teams) through every season; we're going to the girls (basketball) game tonight, soccer season and baseball season. But it's just something that was really special for all of us.
"Of course it's my senior year. But the fact that we won something we've been doing my whole time in the high school and being a leader of it finally ... that's so big to me. You have no idea what this means to our whole town and community."
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 the Buchanan yearbook staff.)
Boyne City
Read all about it: Boyne City Wants You to Get Rowdy
Buchanan
Read all about it: No Place Buchanan's Herd Would Rather Be
Petoskey
Read all about it: Revived Blue Crew Continues to Thrive