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Those who came to Battle, we salute you
January 30, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
We've seen what the reigning title-winner can do. Now it’s time to visit the four schools that hope to unseat Frankenmuth as this season’s Battle of the Fans II champion.
The MHSAA’s BOTF tour continues Thursday at Buchanan, followed by a trip Friday to Vandercook Lake and the final voyages next Tuesday to Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard and Feb. 8 to Zeeland East. (UPDATE Jan. 31: Because Buchanan cancelled its game on this night, the MHSAA will visit Buchanan on Feb. 15.)
Those four already have proven themselves elite among the 27 schools that applied for this year’s contest. But if these challengers are wise, they’ll consider the strengths of the 22 others that were not picked for the finals this season – which we've organized below after watching a re-watching our YouTube BOTF playlist.
Be all in, all the time
Rockford – Although Ram Nation’s section looked a tad smaller than when we visited during last year’s finalist tour, Rockford still comes en masse to make the basket on their side of the gym a distracting place for opponents to visit.
Clarkston – Like Rockford, this is one of the largest MHSAA schools. This section calls itself the “Jungle,” and you could tell from Clarkston’s video that it had a sea of fans creating an imposing presence – with a few of the athletes noting that the section’s performance directly improves their own.
Sterling Heights Stevenson – Another of our bigger schools, Stevenson’s section blocks out a large portion of its gym’s balcony.
Beaverton – This school has only 422 students, but at least half jammed the section for its video clips. As the narrator noted, it’s about “quality, not quantity.” But every fan from the front row to the back seemed to be involved at all times, as evidenced by this clip.
Bring the buzz
Bear Lake – We’re always impressed when a school like Bear Lake, with just 92 students, can provide the kind of energy that would make any opponent take notice. Two-thirds of the school formed a section with plenty of voice although few in number.
Wyandotte Roosevelt – The “Sixth-Man Fiesta” submitted by Roosevelt didn't slow down, even including a Jedi light saber battle and a few other creative efforts and a lot of jumping, yelling and general fun.
Pinconning – As one fan noted, a “true student section is when you have to shower after the game.” Watching this video helped us understand.
Be unique
Bridgman – The self-titled “folks on exit 16,” also known as the “Orange Crush,” do their own thing in the Bee Hive. Lots of themes, a spirited mascot and we might borrow that catchy hashtag, #originality.
Grand Rapids Northview – The Wildcats showed off a repertoire featuring one of our favorites: before a football game, the members of the student section walked from their three buses to the field, hand in hand, just like the players. No wonder the team was inspired to earn its first playoff berth this season.
Clio – The introduction of the Mustangs’ video told us all we needed to know how about their high degree of original thought. If you haven’t already, click to check it out.
Hemlock – We can always appreciate a flash mob, especially when it looks like everyone is simply having a great time. The Huskies made that case well.
Warren Woods-Tower – We've seen just about everything over the last few years both touring our finalists and researching ourselves. The Titans did some of those moves – and then finished off with a few we hadn't seen, including a surfer in the crowd and a tumbling 10 pin. See the clip above.
Stand proudly
Schoolcraft – The “Purple Pack” had a full 15 people speak on its behalf representing everyone from the section itself to the cheerleaders, pep band and team. They love their Eagles, and we’re pretty big fans of this effort as well.
Traverse City West – As the video spokesperson says, “Sadly, your fans aren't Titans.” We liked the sense of pride and the overall army-like uniformity of this section.
Muskegon Mona Shores – The Sailors based their submission on “Jersey Night.” As such, the overall theme was “Sailor Pride,” as we’d expect from a strong section.
Dedicate to the cause
East Grand Rapids – The Pioneers were everywhere in their video – cheering for basketball, football and hockey. The most powerful cheering sections are present at a variety of sports.
Royal Oak – This video featured a different kind of dedication; the video was submitted by hockey players in tribute to their cheering section. A new spin, and a cool one.
Make an impact
Warren DeLaSalle – The “Bro Zone” – DeLaSalle is an all-boys school – brought the level of intensity one might expect from a football team in the stands, plus a healthy level of neon.
Sparta – Plainly put, the Spartans boys basketball team has only two losses over the last two seasons, and the section gets revved up to play its part by a pregame speech.
Keep it positive and HAVE FUN
Kalamazoo Loy Norrix – The “Knightmare” was having an obvious amount of fun, and it was easy to get the sense the section was doing so the right away (and its leaders then explained how the section had changed the perception of the section from negative to positive). Well done.
Saginaw Swan Valley – Dancing, singing, costumes … the Vikings have plenty of fun. And having the narrator hang from the rim gets some extra credit for creativity.
Remember, vote for your favorite of the finalists on the MHSAA Facebook page beginning Feb. 19.
This year’s winner will be announced Feb. 22 and recognized during the Boys Basketball Finals, March 22 at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
And for the rest of this year's applicants ... it's never too early to start brainstorming for Battle of the Fans III.
PHOTO: Frankenmuth hosted the MHSAA for its "Christmas Night" game against Bridgeport on Jan. 18. (Photo courtesy of Chip DeGrace.).
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Have you Herd? Buchanan Tradition Lives On
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
February 14, 2020
BUCHANAN – Every year cheering in Buchanan High School’s student section is different – a different mix of students guarantees a different leadership style, different ideas and different levels of creativity.
But let’s not confuse different with new. Buchanan has built one of the state’s richest student section traditions, and with the accolades to back it up – Battle of the Fans championships in 2013 and 2018 and four other finals finishes.
There’s no forgetting The Herd’s past. And why would anyone want to try?
Section leaders going back nearly a decade are recalled as famously as any recent star athlete. Current section leaders readily recall when they, as elementary students, learned Herd staple cheers like “Geronimo” from those past all-stars during visits – traveling pep rallies – to their elementary and middle schools.
Photos from years past adorn classroom walls, stoking memories and new ideas. And past Herd campaigns like “Mean Stinks” and “Don’t be a Bully” provide memories of growing up in a school and community that has become known as a standard-setter for student section support – and added to the legacy with another BOTF finalist tour visit Tuesday for its boys basketball game against Watervliet.
“We've been doing this for so long. It's just like an expectation,” Buchanan junior Mia Struss said. “It's what we do. It's what Buchanan does. Everybody comes together on Friday nights. Or like this (visit) happened on a Tuesday – we know we're going to have fun, so we're just like ‘Come out’ or ‘Are you guys going to the game? Oh yeah! Absolutely, we're going to the game.’ Everybody just comes together and has a fun time because it's what we do. It's what we're used to doing.”
There’s a well-worn path from the MHSAA’s East Lansing office to Buchanan during Battle of the Fans season.
As noted above, this was our sixth visit in nine years of BOTF, and current seniors were in fifth grade the first time we made the trip. We know how the section got started, we readily can recall leaders we’ve met in the past and cheers that pop immediately into our heads when we even think about coming back to see The Herd.
But instead of relying on that knowledge, we approached Tuesday like we’d never been to Buchanan before. We asked the assembled leaders – seniors Carter Aalfs, Nora Kaltenbach, Jade Smith, Rose Johnson and Bobby Ruth and juniors Ty Scurlock and Mia and her twin sister Morgan Struss – the questions we always ask. How did this get started? What has this meant to your school? Why did you get involved?
Their answers could’ve been word for word what Herd leaders told us in 2013 or 2018 or during any other trip. The conversation just reinforced how ingrained the cheering section has all the way down to the elementary students dreaming of joining in when they are older.
As they joked – but maybe not? – The Herd is a lifestyle.
This is how they live.
Game Time
Buchanan had to deal with a bit of a curveball this BOTF season. Originally, the Herd was going to host the MHSAA on Friday, Jan. 31. But a school-wide illness knocked out the Bucks’ opponent for that night, and the only feasible make-up for the BOTF visit was a Tuesday – generally the lesser-anticipated night for a big crowd compared to a Friday anywhere in the state.
But the move to a Tuesday only seemed to psych The Herd up more.
“It’s a challenge. But we’ve taken it and made it into something that’s normal,” Morgan Struss said.
“We can totally do this,” sister Mia figured. “Yes, it’s a Tuesday. But we’re The Herd. We got it.”
Leaders have an eight-year library of cheers, chants, dances and more to draw from, to go with ideas they’ve cooked up for this school year.
Leaders made sure to tell us this year they have added four new dances to the repertoire. And those were folded nicely into a night of what we’ve come to expect from near-annual trips to “The Woods.”
“We love to keep stuff, but we always like to think outside the box, get new things in and keep some of the old things,” Aalfs said. “And sometimes we'll bring back other things that we've taken out. It’s kinda like a cycle.”
Considering again this was a Tuesday night, the stands were filled – not just the student section, but both sides of the court – which makes sense with the perspective that a school with just more than 400 9th-12th grade students sold 1,200 Herd T-shirts this year to fund the section, provide for local families in need and fund scholarships.
“Neon Night” predictably was a hit, not just with the nearly 200 high schoolers filling their set of bleachers, but also the 30 or more middle school and younger students who formed a “Junior Herd” next to them.
Following a lights-out introduction of the home team, there were cheers for individual players and some kind of activity during every timeout and quarter break until the end of a 22-point win. Halftime included a senior class dance and a five-minute mashup of signing and grooving. Another new addition came at the end of the game, when students formed a long tunnel for the team to leave the court – and then joined together at midcourt one more time for The Herd’s signature “B-U-C-K-S Bucks!” chant.
Back to every year being “different.” Leaders had a tough time putting it into words at first before settling on “effortless” to describe the enthusiasm and cohesiveness of this year’s Herd. And frankly, we could tell the difference too as every student in the stands from front to top seemed engaged and having fun from warmups through the final buzzer.
“(This year) it's truly a feeling of unity,” Ruth added. “You don't understand how amazing it feels just looking up into those stands and just seeing everybody. I'm down on the floor, I'm saying my cheers, I'm leading everybody, and it's so great just seeing everybody all stacked up.”
Be like Buchanan
Take some of these tips from The Herd:
Find a teacher, find a friend: The Herd absolutely benefits from that trio of teachers – “shepherds” – who are dedicated to giving their time and whatever else the section needs. That, and administrative support, go a long way in helping a section get started and need to be cultivated. At the same time, it doesn’t take a lot of student power to get something going. Find a friend, or a few, tell other students you have a plan for the game coming up and just show up and do your thing. Do that once or a few times, and something is bound to take root and grow.
Open the gates: Herd leaders want anyone and everyone from all grades, friend groups, teams and clubs, etc., to be involved – and that’s part of its allure. Tuesday’s visit included something of a welcome with “MHSAA” painted on students’ backs, and one of the students had been at the school all of a week – but already had been pulled into a section meeting and Herd Snapchat. “Everybody's accepted at Buchanan, and we don't exclude anybody,” Ruth said. “It feels so nice to have everybody around. The more people, the more energy and spirit that I feel when we're having meetings and games and everything.”
Embrace trial and error. Because it’s fun: Not every chant or cheer or song is going to work. And that’s fine. Most great discoveries come after the first try. As long as ideas are reasonable, try them out. It’s a great way to find a section identity, and also to keep people engaged in coming up with ideas to help build it.
Make a plan: Once you’ve got a few ideas for theme nights, or a few cheers that have worked and taken hold, make a plan for game night – especially big ones where you’re hoping to get a lot of students to join in. That way you’re not left trying to figure out what’s next on the fly, and your classmates will get hooked on being part of something organized and well-led.
They said it best
Embrace the opportunity: “Come in with an open mind,” Smith said. “Don't be like, ‘That's lame. I'm too cool for that.’ What's the worst that will happen? People will laugh. Laugh with them. In the end you're actually enjoying yourself – you're having more fun than those people judging you.”
Trust me: “I always viewed (The Herd) as an icon, like what people go to see, and I never viewed it as something to do,” Scurlock said. “I always went there to watch them, or I was playing basketball. This year it was different. Last year I was behind them in the stands, going with them, but I wasn't consistent with it. Now that I’m in it, I wish I did it before. I regret it a lot. … I’ll ask my friends if they want to do this or that (with The Herd), and they’ll say they, ‘Nah, I don’t want to do that.’ I say, ‘Trust me, you do. You just don’t realize it.’”
Great expectations: “I started two years ago, and just looking at the class that had graduated that year (in 2018), that had started everything, that class was full of a lot of my friends and I felt very inspired looking at them,” Ruth said. “So I felt like this year, I really had to own up to that and say, ‘Hey, listen.’ I need to do what they did.”
They’ve got next: “When we go into traveling pep rallies, we're like, ‘Hey, this is going to be you someday. You're going to have to fill our shoes eventually.’ We're just trying to prepare them as much as possible so it will be a fun time for them.” Johnson said of the younger students coming up. “Whenever we say a chant, like ‘Do you know this chant?’ They're like yeah, and they start doing it. So it's just exciting. They just know us and know all the chants and what we do.”
Next stop on BOTF: We will finish the 2020 BOTF tour at Zeeland East with tonight’s boys basketball game against Hamilton. Our coverage of that trip will be posted to Second Half on Monday, and social media voting will begin Tuesday and continue through Thursday. The Battle of the Fans IX champion will be announced Feb. 21.
The Battle of the Fans is sponsored in part by the United Dairy Industry of Michigan.
PHOTOS: (Top) Buchanan students cheer on their classmates during Tuesday’s boys basketball game against Watervliet. (Middle) Senior Carter Aalfs gets plenty of air while leading the section’s roller coaster. (Photos by Jessica Elliott.)