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CHEERLEADING
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s soon as West scores a touchdown, the student body drowns out all other sounds with cheers. Despite not being able to hear anything, the flashing of green and gold pompoms flying into the air catches everyone’s eye. The cheerleaders’ main job on Friday nights is getting the crowd excited and encouraging the football players. They also ensure that the student section is invested in cheering for the team by performing ‘nice’ cheers — ones that demonstrate sportsmanship. “If we’re trying to get the crowd pumped up, we’ll do a cheer we know they’ll like, and we call those the ‘crowd cheers’ where they get invested and rowdy,” said Lexi Goodale ’19, one of the captains of the football cheer team. In addition to cheers, the team performs stunts during timeouts and breaks between quarters
SPORTS
OCT. 4, 2018
to boost crowd morale. Sometimes they toss a cheerleader into the air, who does several flips before safely landing in the other cheerleaders’ arms. Other times, the cheerleaders do ground work, where they flip and cartwheel with the support of the whole team. “When [we] are doing stunts, [the whole team] is … spotting in case somebody falls. If they don’t get it right away, we try to help each other,” Goodale said. “The people that do higher level stunts help the younger girls figure out how to do it with the proper techniques so nobody gets hurt. We always support each other.” Cheerleaders have plenty to do on the field, but they still manage to make time for each other. “I really love getting to know other people and getting to hang out with my friends on Friday nights,” Goodale said. “It’s something that brings us all together.”
DRUMLINE
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he student section goes wild, not because the football team scored a touchdown, but because the drumline has gotten into formation. The drumline members play in the marching band but do their own routine before the third quarter. They serve to hype up the student section before the second half of the game. “The best part is marching off … and we head over to the student section and they’re all cheering,” said Charlie Duffy ’21, a snare drum player in drumline. Instead of playing whole pieces like the marching band, the drumline plays cadences, a series of notes with a distinct beat. Additionally, there is a lot of improvisation that goes along with the cadences. “We might not follow the music exactly … we still read the music and try learning as best we can, [but] we just might improvise a little bit because it can be bland sometimes,” said tenor drum player BJ Wolf ’21. Like marching band, the drumline partici-
pates in Heck Week. Drumline started practicing a day earlier, working solely on cadences. They also practice with the whole band during first period everyday, but occasionally they have their own days to work on their cadences. The drumline is home to a variety of instruments: cymbals, bass and tenor and snare drums. Together, these instruments create a fun beat for the student section to cheer and dance to. Duffy thinks watching the student section is the best part of drumline. “It’s fun because … you can see the [bleachers] dip while everyone’s jumping,” he said. “It’s always fun because it’s just a good reaction out of people.” Outside of drumline, they are a close-knit group as well. “We’re basically all just a group of friends, because we’re connected through drumline,” Duffy said. “[We’re] all doing something that [we] love,” Wolf added.
MARCHING BAND
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he sound of whistles cuts through the air and soon you see “The Incredibles” logo forming on the field, accompanied by the blares of horns and the clashes of cymbals. This large group of about 200 instrumentalists is the marching band. They get the crowd pumped for the football game and create an upbeat and happy atmosphere. Every year, the pregame pieces are the same: “Tribute to Troy,” “Fight Song” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” However, the halftime show changes from year to year. Besides just playing the pieces, the marching band gathers in different formations on the field. This year, they arranged themselves into “The Incredibles” logo while last year they spelled out the word “Beatles” because they performed a Beatles tune. The band also plays “Fight Song” and “Tribute to Troy” in the stands when the football team scores a touchdown. As effortless as the marching band tunes
sound, the members actually undergo rigorous practice that starts a week before school. This week, dubbed Heck Week by the band members, requires them to learn all the different marching techniques and go over the new music and prepare for the first halftime show, which took place on the second day of school this year. They also spend the whole first trimester practicing marching band music in class. Heck Week also brings the band members together, according to Caitlyn Wicks ’20, a drum major. “I think of band as a whole family, because a lot of people in band … just kind of get along, and we have to go through Heck Week all together,” Wicks said. Wicks enjoys marching band season more than regular band class. “I really like marching band season because it’s ... a time where you can talk to your friends and have a good time … and [there’s] more fun music to play,” she said. PHOTOS BY KARA WAGENKNECHT DESIGN BY MADELINE EPHRAIM