Photo by Trent Pederson
For students with astounding amounts of Gopher pride, the best part of the week is dressing up in all kinds of crazy outfits for the Friday night football game or cramming into the hot gym to support the volleyball team. This is otherwise known as “super fanning.”
This year, Busse and junior Erica Keathley introduced punch cards to the loyal and enthusiastic Super Fans to recognize their spirit and attendance. Super Fans bring the cards to each game and are eventually put into a drawing to win an interesting prize.
“We placed certain games on the cards for every type of sport currently going on. If you attend the game and support the team either Erica, Gonzo [activities director Ty Gonrowski] or I will punch your card,” Busse said. “If you get enough points from games your name will be entered into a drawing and you can win prizes. If you want one come find either one of us and we’ll hook a playa up.”
Any student interested in obtaining a punch card should contact Busse, Keathley or Gonrowski.
Students, who have lately been decked out in Gopher gear, usually arrive to games extra early in order to get the best seats in the Super Fan section to show their pride and let their voices be heard.
“Kids do a lot of different stuff. Some do full body, skin tight suits. Others do flashy outfits. Some make shirts, paint on themselves and wear jerseys. They just get creative!” junior volleyball player Alex Frazier said.
The best Super Fan turnout is at the football and volleyball games of the fall sports.
The Super Fan turnout this year has drastically increased from previous years here. It has become an exciting practice that students really look forward to and prepare for, especially on those Friday nights, after a long week full of tests, homework and studying.
The amount of Super Fans has not just increased, their spirit has as well.
“In the Super Fan section in the center of the stadium, it now is fully going from the one bleacher up to the other, so the whole first bleacher is full and it goes back about 4 rows deep,” Jennifer Wilson, who provides security near the crowd at the football games, said. “And kids are usually overflowing into the walkways. It’s a lot more than what I’ve seen in the past couple years I would say.”
It has become an exciting practice that students really look forward to and prepare for, especially on those Friday nights, after a long week full of tests, homework and studying.
“They’re definitely spirited because they’re cheering themselves, they’re actually watching the game so they know when to cheer, and they encourage the cheerleaders a lot and call them out to do jumps and start cheers they haven’t done yet,” Wilson added.
Not only are the Super Fans having fun cheering and chanting, the players benefit from the support as well. Encouraging cheers let the players know that their school is always rooting for them even when the score may be down.
“It [the cheering] actually helps a lot. It can be a game changer with the emotion they bring and the energy that they bring to the game,” Frazier said.
The Super Fans even start cheers to encourage the cheerleaders to start another cheer as well. However, this can sometimes conflict with the cheerleaders’ routines.
“When Super Fans chant cheers that are offensive and we can’t chant them as cheerleaders, we have to start chanting something else such as ‘Let’s go Gresham!’ or ‘Gopher power!’,” junior cheerleader Okxana Rodriguez said. “ Basically encouraging chants.”
Another aspect of the Super Fan culture is the opposing team’s Super Fans. Sometimes the cheering between fans can become hostile, though that is not the intention of super fanning.
Additionally, the negative and demeaning rants the opposing team’s fans yell at the players can really break their concentration and make it hard to stay positive.
“We try to say that the other fans are ‘cheering for us’ and sometimes it works. But it’s hard when you make a mistake and they start to get in your head and you get mad,” Frazier said. “Sometimes it gets aggressive with the other fans when they cheer against you or call you out. You try your hardest to block them out but sometimes they slip in, that’s when you need to focus back up and show them why you’re out there.”
Aside from these conflicts, the combination of Super Fans and cheerleaders aims to show large amounts of spirit for Gopher athletes and teams.
“We lead the cheers and get the Super Fans all pumped up, but when being a Super Fan, you can go all out and show your spirit in a different manner,” Rodriguez said.
Going to the games and being a Super Fan seems to benefit all. The players stay motivated, the school shows more spirit, the cheerleaders are greeted with pumped up fans and occasionally there are even prizes available to Super Fan.
Additionally, there will be a Super Fan bus going to the volleyball tournament at Lincoln High School on Friday Nov. 9. To ride on the bus, students must have signed up before hand and paid $4 for the game and $10 for the bus.
When a team wins their game, students, staff and athletes alike are proud to be apart of the experience.
“The best part [of a football game] is at the end of the game when all of the football players come up and sing the fight song with us,” Busse said. “I will never forget that.”
