Contact: Geoff Kimmerly
517.332.5046 or [email protected]
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Feb. 19 – The Traverse City West High School student cheering section – the “Bleacher Creatures” – has been selected as this year’s Michigan High School Athletic Association “Battle of the Fans V” winner as the top student cheering section among member schools.
This was the fifth year for the contest, which was organized by MHSAA staff and its 16-member Student Advisory Council.
Student sections from Charlotte, Munising, Muskegon Western Michigan Christian, Traverse City West and Yale were selected as finalists from a pool of applicants. MHSAA staff and SAC members visited all five for home basketball games during the last six weeks and produced videos of each section for the MHSAA’s YouTube channel. A public vote was conducted on the MHSAA’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages beginning Tuesday and ending Thursday, and those results influenced the Advisory Council vote as members selected the champion.
The Student Advisory Council also based its vote on the following criteria: positive sportsmanship, student body participation, school spirit, originality of cheers, organization of the group, section leadership and overall fun.
“This competition continues to show us that positive sportsmanship can and does exist in student sections,” said Andy Frushour, MHSAA director of brand management and advisor to the Student Advisory Council. “Students who take part can have a lot of fun, and this was never more evident than during our visit to Traverse City West.”
Students were invited in December to submit a short video, via YouTube, of their cheering sections in action. To view finalists’ submissions on YouTube, click on http://ow.ly/Ywjoi. For links to stories and MHSAA-produced videos for all five finalists, click on http://ow.ly/YwjgC. Video of all five sections will be played on the Breslin Center HD scoreboard during the Girls and Boys Basketball Finals in March. Traverse City West will receive an MHSAA championship banner during a break in the Class B Boys Basketball Semifinals on March 25, and the other four finalists also will be invited to Breslin to receive awards for this season’s achievement.
Traverse City West, on Feb. 4, was the third stop on the MHSAA finalists tour.
“Our school, the students who go to these games, are just so passionate. We invest so much time because we love it,” said senior Cooper Kirby, a leader of the Creatures.
“It’s just a long history of people who just like me loved our school. People who were so invested in the Bleacher Creatures. It’s says so much this year about what set us apart, but also about years past and every student who’s ever gone to one of our games and been passionate about what we do.”
The Student Advisory Council is made up of eight seniors and eight juniors, who each serve two-year terms. The Council acts as the voice of Michigan's student-athletes; it serves as a student sounding board for the MHSAA's Representative Council, assists in planning Sportsmanship Summits, Captains Clinics and other student leadership events; participates in a yearly focus group about the state of high school sports for Michigan State University's Institute for the Study of Youth Sports and assists with medal ceremonies at MHSAA championship events.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,400 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.
-0-