The
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Volume 59 Edition 14
Students suggest alternatives for earning overalls
Tiger Nation: Striped overalls, face paint and everything red, white and black. Since the position of a student section leader was contrived by the students themselves, the definition of what makes a student section leader varies from person to person. In this second installment, the tradition of handing down the overalls will be explored. Next week, the representation of Tiger Nation on social media will be discussed. Year to year, the red and white striped overalls that hang from the bodies of sweaty teenage boys secure their place in the front row of bleachers at the UNI Dome. At the end of each year, these cherished, yet slightly tarnished pants are passed down to four new individuals of the up and coming senior class. “The leaders before us chose who would get the overalls,” student section leader and graduate Lucas DeWitt said. DeWitt said he passed it down to graduate Jacob Grinstead because he was told to by the other student section leaders. It’s been tradition that each year the overalls are handed down from the previous leaders. While some students find that concerning, Principal Jason Wedgbury said the tradition is not one that administration is looking to change. “We have to make enough decisions. I don’t know that I’m looking to control or get involved with how student leaders are determined. I mean, they are what they are,” Wedgbury said. “I think sometimes the student body has to work itself out that way. I don’t think that we should oversee who our student leaders are.”
Activities Director Troy Becker said that since he and administration have no control on how the leaders are passed down, his excitement for who these leaders are changes from year to year. “I can say over the 12 years I’ve been in administration there’s some people they’ll pass it down to to that I’ll be ‘that’s awesome.’ There’s other people they’ll pass it down to who I’m like ‘Oh my goodness. I’m a little worried about that one,’” he said. Becker said the last several years the student section leaders have been great at events. “We have had tremendous leaders, very positive, good sportsmanship-type of leaders.” Based on the results of a Tiger Hi-Line survey, some students see no problem with how the overalls are handed down now. Junior Jacob Meester said that the overalls should be handed down to the juniors who showed up and showed out. “Previous student section leaders should choose those who they thought showed the most spirit and had the best attendance to all games,” Meester said. Other students who aren’t as pleased with the tradition of handing the overalls down suggested multiple different alternatives. Some other options students have contemplated are having students vote, letting varsity coaches choose candidates or even conducting a Twitter poll on the Tiger Nation social media page. Senior Mia Dexter said it’s important for the leaders to embody what Tiger Nation is at every sport and during every season. “I
think we should take a vote on who could best represent what a good leader is. Also, they should also care about all of Cedar Falls’ sports, not just football and men’s basketball. There are a lot of other sports that need and would love the schools’ support,” Dexter said. Becker said that one way of changing how the leaders are passed down is turning the responsibility over to administration. “Potentially, it’s just a matter if the student section and their leaders want to turn it over to the counselors or someone like myself to help with the selection process. Right now it’s just pretty much people coming forward to the previous leaders saying, ‘I want to do it next year.’” DeWitt agreed with altering the system and said it shouldn’t just be the student section leaders focusing on “popularity or who is friends with who.” DeWitt said we should get more student body involved. “I don’t think administration should but it also shouldn’t just be the leaders. There are a lot of people I feel that are very capable of showing school spirit the right way, but should be between all the students. Maybe Senior Leadership helps,” he said. Agreeing with Dexter and Becker that the student section leaders should be voted on, rather than picked by the previous leaders, senior Sofia Muñoz said that Tiger Nation isn’t currently living up to her standards of what an ideal student section should look like. “I am deterred from going to sporting
events because I know that the section will just disappoint me. After being shushed by previous section leaders and even told to leave the section for cheering for my team because I was ‘too loud,’ I want my perception of Tiger Nation to be renewed,” Muñoz said. “As section leaders, people are supposed to be able to get loud, stay loud and keep energy up whether we are winning or losing. That is not a reality for us right now.” Adding on to that, Muñoz recognizes that girls are not well represented when it comes to being student section leaders. “Girls can get just as hyped up as the guys, and many times even more so. Putting more representation in who represents the students will give the section as a whole a more diverse and representative aspect to the section. This will encourage more people to attend games and will give a new perspective to how the section is run,” Muñoz said. Becker said that some girls tend to take on the role of being a student section leader during certain games or seasons, but normally it is the boys who are given the title. Nearby high schools such as Waverly ShellRock, Bettendorf and Janesville all have female student section leaders representing their respective schools. DeWitt, who graduated in 2017, said during his years in high school the student section leaders were always an “male identifying student.” Story continued on Page 2/ TIGER NATION
Maple Lanes fire forces adjustments for bowling team Maple Lanes bowling alley fell victim to a robbery and fire on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at around 3 a.m. that damaged the front half of the building yet spared the lanes. Three robbers broke in and held a maintenance worker captive, instructing him not to move while they searched safes and vending machines for cash. About an hour later, the worker fled to the nearby fire station after feeling intense heat in the building. The damaged building and equipment has forced the Cedar Falls bowling squads to make adjustments. Men’s varsity bowling coach Brad Baker said the fire has affected his team’s schedule, having to make shifts for both practices and meets. “We had two home meets left, and so we had to kind of flip those. So, instead of hosting our last two, we are actually going to go to Western Dubuque and then to Waterloo East,” Baker said. Making the best of a tough
do in the upcoming month. The team has a regional qualifier on Feb. 18 in Cedar Rapids, and then the State tournament will be at Cadillac Lanes in Waterloo on Feb. 26. Senior bowler Will Nickey said that preparations won’t waiver going into the State tournament. “Right now our practice has been affected because we are going to have to switch bowling alleys and work around other teams’ schedules for lane times. It doesn’t really affect our preparation for the Submitted Photos state meet. We just need to get used to our new equipment After the robbery and fire at Maple Lanes early Tuesday, Feb. 4, the bowling teams evaluated how to cope first,” Nickey said. With two college teams and with the losses and adjust their seasons. three high school teams now situation, Baker said the team is tice, and then we had to adjust practicing at Cadillac Lanes, able to relocate practices and the meet to Thursday, so we’re senior bowler Sofia Muñoz said stay on course. “This week, missing that, but next week our practices may be hard to get we had practice Monday, but, practice schedule is back to in. “I’m sure we’ll get time. It’ll of course, then it was Monday roads of normal. We’re just go- just be tight, especially so close night when everything haping to be at Cadillac instead of to State. I hope lack in practice pened. We didn’t have anyMaple.” time doesn’t set us back too far, thing planned Tuesday. We’re Even with the fire, Baker said but it’s going to be up to indigonna miss Wednesday’s practhere’s still plenty of bowling to viduals to keep up what we’ve
been working for during this dip,” Muñoz said. Neither the men or women’s teams have been able to determine what all exactly was lost in the fire. “Right now, we’re not 100 percent sure because we haven’t actually been able to get into the building, but we’re under the assumption that pretty much everything is a total loss at this point,” Baker said. Muñoz also said it’s safe to assume that all their equipment was lost. “Pretty much everything was damaged. We heard from Baker that the fire was mainly in the kitchen and pro shop (where new equipment and stuff that was getting fixed was) and the water damaged the rest,” Muñoz said. “A lot of the team had their stuff in lockers throughout the building, and with what we know, we’re assuming it was all damaged. There is a possibility that very few people’s Story continued on Page 4/ MAPLE LANES