Through every football game, the voices of players, coaches and spectators blend into one roar across the field. Yet through all this chaos, the sound of Texas High students echoes loudly over them all. Rallied together with bubble guns and shakers in hand, this mighty group cheers their hearts out every home game in support of the Texas High football team.
Texas High’s student section, run by various members of the student council, operates with one goal in mind: to support and encourage all student athletes. With a new theme every week, students come together with chants and signs ready to bring the school spirit.
“We have specific students who are in charge of getting together spirit ideas, working on the theme, making sure that they have stuff going on,” student council sponsor Susan Waldrep said. “Grace Raley is one of the people in charge, and she gets bubbles every week. And Griffin has gotten people to paint faces and different things. And so it’s just [a] combination of different people who’ve gotten stuff done, and it makes [the student section] a lot better.”
Student section leaders work together not only to make the football experience more enjoyable for students, but also to motivate them to participate in cheering on the Tigers. Zachary Fulmer, a senior student section leader, outlines the expectations of those who sit there.
“[One expectation we set for the students is] no sitting during the game. This was a big change this year because in years past, students would generally sit down during the games, especially towards the end of quarters whenever the team was losing,” Fulmer said. “[Standing up] shows the team that we’re actually there to support them instead of sitting on our rear ends.”
Fulmer continues to talk about the new rules of the student section, outlining the importance of unity in the student body.
“Get loud or go home,” Fulmer said. “We try and get everyone involved in chants or songs because if part of a student section isn’t involved, it seems like the student section as a whole doesn’t want to be there.”
With every change made, student section leaders plan to improve the positive environment of the section.
“We made these changes to provide an inclusive atmosphere for the students,” Raley said. “As well as make the student section look more whole and united.”
Along with the changes in how the student section runs, student section leaders like senior Kate Cook work to encourage more people to join the student section on game days.
“We’ve just advertised it more and made it seem more fun by doing different things,” Cook said. “[A few examples are] our confetti poppers and our powder poppers.”
These changes do not go unnoticed by the students who attend these games in anticipation of the growing Texas High spirit.
“There are more people and student involvement, which helps encourage my friends and I to go” sophomore Arden Razaq said. “There is also the new Instagram page that helps spread the word about spirit days and important information that students would need to know.”
The adjustments made to the student section are not exclusive to football; section leaders plan to support all sports and athletes throughout the year, making small changes with big impacts to help school spirit.
“We’ve done a few of the volleyball games. We hope to do some of the basketball games and some of the baseball games,” Waldrep said. “Those are just some of the little things that I think this senior class has done such a good job with, is taking on those small changes that hopefully will have a big impact for our school and school unity.”
