Welcome to the Woods: Small Town, Big Heart
February 18, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
BUCHANAN -- Dilan Shearer’s advice for Josh Money was simple enough.
“Shoes and hats. Match,” Shearer used say to his usually mis-matched friend, before providing a fashion upgrade by making Money wear a pair of his Nike Air Jordans.
The MHSAA finished its “Battle of the Fans” tour Friday at Buchanan for its boys basketball game against Bridgman. On his way back to school that afternoon, Money stopped at Shearer’s home and grabbed those Jordans to wear for an occasion that surely would’ve meant the world to his friend. Money knew right where to find the shoes – Shearer’s bedroom is just as it was June 17, the day the Buchanan junior died in a car crash.
Shearer and Money would’ve stood together this winter at the lead of the “The Herd,” which over the last few months has transformed from a loosely-organized group of student cheerers to an example of student section fervor at its most efficient – while rallying their small southwestern community near the Indiana border.
Sadly, the most super of superfans in “The Woods” was not a part of this school year’s incredible effort. But that hardly means Shearer’s influence hasn’t been present since the section’s new start this fall.
“I feel like he’s the backbone of everything,” said Money, who leads the Herd during games with one of Shearer’s cousins and Shearer’s best friend.
“It would have been me and him. During the first meeting (to plan the section), I was thinking, ‘Man, he would love to be here, being crazy.’”
Buchanan was the final stop on the Battle of the Fans tour, which also included visits to Frankenmuth, Vandercook Lake, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard and Zeeland East. A fan vote will be held on the MHSAA Facebook page beginning Tuesday and ending Thursday, with those results then being combined with a vote by the MHSAA’s Student Advisory Council to determine the champion – which will be announced Friday on Second Half.
Shearer’s death rocked this town of nearly 4,500. He was known to say, “Make a statement everywhere you go,” and “Do it big. Never downsize,” and was recognizable as a regular at Buchanan sporting events.
Money knows his friend would’ve loved how the Herd of nearly 300 strong arrived at 4 p.m. for the freshman game this night. How home basketball nights have become so big in town that the 1,000-fan capacity was filled. How a community member mentioned he’d been coming to game for 30 years, “and I’ve never seen anything remotely like this.”
Coming off the momentum of last year’s inaugural BOTF contest, and prior to the MHSAA Sportsmanship Summit this fall in nearby Kalamazoo, Buchanan athletic director Fred Smith showed Money the video of last year’s champion, Frankenmuth. The Battle was a major focus of this fall’s MHSAA summits, and Smith said he hoped Money and other leaders could create something similar to last year’s champion.
When Money found out Frankenmuth has 507 students – only 40 more than Buchanan – he realized the Bucks could achieve that goal.
But how he and his classmates and advisors made it happen so systematically is something schools would be wise to model.
Smith and Money built out the rest of the leadership team and attended the summit, during which they came up with so many ideas for the new Herd that Smith had a hard time keeping up while writing them down. “I got the chills as we were coming up with the ideas,” sophomore Sam Swem said.
The next step was forming the school’s spirit club. The first meeting drew 15 students; the second drew 30. With Money, Swem and sophomore Ellie Hurd in the lead, the group meets after school Tuesdays and Thursdays for planning, with theme nights spread quickly over Twitter marked with hash tags #FearTheDeer and #TheWoods.
Slogans took off quickly -- “Welcome to the Woods,” “Don’t be a bully, be a Buck,” and during football season, “Stay classy, but a little Bucknasty.” And like for a sports team, the school's booster club has provided the group with funds and supplies.
The leaders then took a “prep rally” on the road to the district’s middle and two elementary schools. They brought along Bucky, the high school’s mascot, to great cheers from the kindergarten, first and second-grade students.
Money, also known as the "Trophy Buck," has become something of a mini-celebrity among the mini students, who rush up to say hi and give him a high five, or say things like “Welcome to the woods” and “Herd dat.”
“‘Herd Dat’ is part of my regular vocabulary,” Money said, referring to the term that plays on the Herd nickname while signifying understanding and agreement.
“It’s a small town, and I’ve been here my whole entire life, so I know everybody here,” Money added. “If I go to the bank or the gas station, people say, ‘How’s the Herd doing? What’s the next theme?’”
“We’re a family, and not just a family within the school,” Swem said. “Even if you’re not at the games, you’re still part of the Herd.”
There’s no doubt, Shearer is also still part of the Herd. The school’s “fan from above” certainly is never far from the Herd’s collective heart.
Lose or win, like the Bucks did Friday, the students pay tribute to their classmate after every final buzzer. They join arms – and the parents have begun to do so as well – and sing Eric Church’s song “Springsteen,” one of Shearer’s favorites.
“I feel like we do it big here, and we never downsize,” Money said, echoing his friend’s favorite sayings, “and we make a statement everywhere we go.”
Swem’s reply simply said it all:
“Herd dat.”
Subway is sponsor of this season's Battle of the Fans II contest.
PHOTOS: (Top) Members of the Herd are joined by players and coaches for the postgame singing of "Springsteen." (Middle) Senior Josh Money leads the Herd through its array of cheers and dances. (Photos courtesy of Caryn DeFreez, DeFreez Photography.)
Yale Kohler's Krazies Rise to Roar
January 27, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
YALE – The magnitude of last season’s Boys Basketball District Final gave Yale’s “Kohler's Krazies” a glimpse of their potential as a booming student cheering section.
But a 90-minute delay during that eventual overtime loss to Imlay City showed junior Karli Klocke how a collection of her classmates watching a basketball game could impact their entire school.
The game was forced into an unexpected break after humidity in the gym made the floor too slippery. The teams went to their locker rooms during clean-up, and many of the 1,000 fans in the sold-out stands took their seats.
And despite the wait, all of more than 100 Krazies stayed through the final buzzer.
“I just like how it brought everybody, all grades, together,” Klocke said. “And during that hour and a half, we were all sitting there together. We’ve never been a group that’s usually been all together.”
Ten months later, the Krazies have ridden the momentum of that March evening – and grown into a top-five contender for this season’s Battle of the Fans IV championship.
Yale hosted the latest MHSAA finalists visit Friday for its boys basketball game against Almont. Reigning champion Beaverton was the first tour stop, Jan. 16, with Buchanan scheduled for this Friday and then St. Johns and Dowagiac over the next three weeks leading up to the naming of this year’s champion Feb. 20. The public may vote for its favorite on the MHSAA’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sites beginning Feb. 17, with the MHSAA Student Advisory Council taking results into consideration when selecting the champion after the vote has concluded.
The Krazies were first-time BOTF applicants this winter, following the transformation of a section that existed on a much smaller and informal scale over the last half-decade.
The former Kohler’s Kids, then Kohler’s Krew and Krew 2.0 before becoming the Krazies for 2013-14 – all in recognition of boys hoops coach Garnett Kohler – previously was a group of 20-40 upperclassmen who gathered to cheer on the team.
With last season’s District turnout helping fuel the effort, new section leaders this fall began organizing a section that would be more inclusive – encouraging the entire student body to take part – and have enjoyed immediate results. The Krazies swelled to an estimated 450 and filled a quarter of Yale’s gym to the rafters for Friday's girls and boys hoops doubleheader.
There hasn’t been anything complicated about Yale’s campaign; it’s as simple as trying to get more students to watch games together. And the Krazies have a rather straightforward goal for each game night; they don't stop cheering, aside from halftime, from the opening tip until the final buzzer – even when Yale's lead tops 20 points.
“This is such a new thing, everybody’s so excited about it and they just want to be a part of it,” junior Kaylee Schiffelbine said.
The Krazies took steps toward formalizing last season, when a group of four seniors sold T-shirts and created some of the favorite cheers. But their vision for the section was “small,” senior Spencer French said, and he and a few others began talking over the summer about how to expand it.
For starters, the section would no longer be about juniors and seniors only. Over two weeks this fall, the Krazies sold 210 section T-shirts – three times more than the year before. They started Facebook and Twitter feeds to get the word out, and parents joined in the social media loop; the Krazies’ BOTF application video enjoyed more than 1,000 views in just a few days after it was posted and now has been watched more than 5,000 times.
“Even with the video, (we thought) it would be cool to get top five (of BOTF),” senior Robert Vinckier said, “but getting the video shared around, it gets more people in the game, and they see how fun it is.
“We’re such good friends with the players on the team, so we’d go to the game whether we had a student section or not. But we might as well have more fun while we’re watching them play.”
The section’s rallying cry for 2013-14 could’ve been summed up as “wear your shirt and show up.”
“Wear your shirt and show up” should now include the word “early.” Although the girls varsity game Friday didn’t begin until 6 p.m., the first Krazies showed at 4:30 to secure seats closest to midcourt and the floor.
And the Krazies are a basketball cheering section in the literal sense. They cheered, nearly non-stop, through the end of a mostly one-sided 68-46 win by their boys team. Of course, they mixed some creative frills – bowling using the Bulldog mascot to knock down a group of fans, and the first superintendent-led roller coaster in BOTF tour history – but those merely kept the mood amped during breaks in play.
The objective is simple as well – be loud. Loud enough that an opposing player tweets that the section is “crazy.” Loud enough to encourage a rumor the Krazies won’t be allowed to cheer at a rival’s gym later this season. Loud enough to force an opponent’s point guard to motion to his bench because he can’t hear his coach yelling in the plays. Loud enough that Yale’s coach and players also had to come up with hand signals so they could communicate over the blare.
“Loud” would’ve been an understatement Friday. The Krazies’ roar, heard standing on the opposite side of Yale’s gym, registered noticeable decibels above the norm for a high school game.
French admits he didn’t know what they were taking on when he and a group of about 10 began meeting twice a week in late October armed only with ideas and what senior Steven Jordan calls “unwritten rules of sportsmanship.” But they forged strong relationships with principal Paul Flynn and athletic director Maureen Klocke (no relation to Karli), who have provided plenty of input while trusting the leaders to police the group when it’s rarely necessary. Leaders run ideas past administrators first, and that has allowed for what leaders feel is a bit more leniency.
Their classmates, meanwhile, have followed the lead and made good on last year’s potential.
“In high school, there are groups. Some groups aren’t going to be there (at games),” French said. “But it’s those kids who are coming out and saying, ‘Hey, what can we do? Can we do this? Are we wearing this? Can we do a costume night?’ That’s been the coolest thing for me. There’s people that I would never think would go to a basketball game, and they come up to me and say, ‘Hey, what can I do to help?’”
Spencer admits he was a bit anxious before the first boys basketball game this winter – until 115 students showed. The school’s athletic booster club has since donated $100 for gift cards to give out as prizes, and the student council supplied a sling shot Friday to send free shirts into the crowd.
“When we started off this year, a lot of people didn’t think it would be that big of a deal; it would just be another student section,” he said. “But as we’ve progressed throughout the season, people realized this is a big deal.
“We weren’t that tight-knit beforehand. Slowly but surely as the season has progressed, the parents, student organizations and administration all have been brought closer together. And we’re not even halfway through the season yet.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Yale superintendent Ken Nicholl leads the roller coaster during Yale's boys basketball game Friday against Almont. (Middle) Kohler's Krazies cheer numbered 450 for the MHSAA visit. (Top photo by Lisa Depelsmaeker, middle by Katie Priehs.)