Katie Kuberra and Cydney Ventura
Reporters
After Bussey’s Bomb Squad’s slow start in the beginning of the year, it seemed as though our school was starting to lose the spirit that it once had in the past. But senior leader, Dan Makela, has decided it is time for a change and has been trying to encourage more people to come to games and participate in supporting sports teams.
Despite much harsh criticism about this year’s Bomb Squad, Dan is feeling positive about its future. “We got off to a little bit of a slow start, but we’re looking to make a big comeback in hockey and basketball and I just really hope that people come out and support the teams,” he said.
Although Dan is trying to rally up more fans for the games, some students still doubt the school spirit of the student body. Senior Tripper Saitta believes that compared to the past, attendance at games has dwindled. “The Bomb Squad leaders weren’t doing so great in the beginning, but they are doing better; I’ve seen improvement,” he said. “But nobody goes to the games and nobody is there to support it.”
Junior Olivia Hoelzer agrees that there has been a loss of spirit in the school over the past couple of years. “It’s definitely a lot weaker. Not a lot of people go to the games and there’s not as many cheers and spirit,” she said. “I think that the leaders aren’t as strong. They really try but they just aren’t as passionate as leaders in the past.”
According to athletic director, Jay Egan, attendance at games is very circumstantial and varies per year.“I think it just varies with the senior class and how interested they are in coming out and supporting their classmates,” he said. “It also depends on how many of those people are involved in different activities at the same time when these sports are going on.”
However, Mr. Egan said that he has noticed a positive impact on the sports team’s athleticism. “I think that in the last two basketball games I’ve come to they’ve made a significant contribution to the teams success,” he said. “They came to the Bassick game and they came to the Brien McMahon game and I think particularly in those games they were cheering at important times in the game and there was a significant number of kids that came out.”
Tripper agreed that the presence of the Bomb Squad has contributed to the basketball teams recent winning streak. “We beat Bassick solely because the Bomb Squad was chirping the hell out of the team. We were actually killing them,” he said.
Seniors Henry Lavieri and Jack Isherwood provided their input about how the bomb squad can improve students’ spirit. “We believe we should purchase matching tanks with a red ram on the front and the phrase ‘I’m sweatin’ on the back,’” they said. “This will promote hard work, dedication and school spirit.”
Dan promises that he has big ideas to improve the Bomb Squad participation and overall school spirit. “There will definitely be more chants, more funny chants not just the typical ‘hail NC’ but better chants and we need to hype up the games more, but it’s going to be good.”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH-AOt6aZXc
