By: JP Yeich

  Every fall at Mustang Stadium, Marriotts Ridge hosts varsity football games on some Friday nights. Inside the vast crowd, the student section is where Marriotts Ridge students congregate to support the football team and show their school spirit by yelling supporting chants and following a unique dress code specific to that game.

   “All the chants and great energy make the student section enjoyable, especially when one or two people are leading the student section and all the cheers,” senior Giuseppe DeLisa-Hughes stated. 

   When some students think about the football games, their mind often goes to the student section and its atmosphere. As DeLisa-Hughes stated, aspects like the chants and energy are incredibly dependent on the students who lead these chants. These students, who tend to be seniors, act as conductors to the orchestra that is the student section. According to a large portion of the student body, these conductors have been doing a great job at keeping the student section loud and rowdy.

   “The student section has gone crazy this year. This year has been better than every other year for the student section, and we need to keep it going,” senior Aaron Hammann remarked.

   When students are able to unite together and support one common goal, in this case, the football team, it grows the school spirit and pride to attend Marriotts Ridge. The student section is supposed to be fun with no diminishing qualities; however, when the population of the section gets off the rails, it discourages people from wanting to return.

   “Sometimes people throw things, and they hit people,” freshman Cole Albert replied.

   Albert recalls the diminishing qualities of the student section, and it is important to remember that every four years, there is a new student body that populates the football games. The atmosphere of the student section is a culture that is passed down from one generation of upperclassmen to the next. If a negative connotation is passed down, the culture of the student section will become a dying light. This potential fate calls for spirited mustangs to encourage not only an exciting student section, but also one that everyone can be proud to be a part of. 

   While the student section is large, it still has a lot of room to grow.

   “We could put banners around the school, and get people to post about it on social media,” junior Dean Holter proposed.

   Outreach in numbers seems to be a very popular way to promote the football games and encourage people to come. The outreach is present on social media, as per the Instagram account mrhs.student.section, where weekly information about all student section-related activities is provided. The account promotes gameday information, including game dates, themes, and locations. All Marriotts Ridge students are encouraged to repost these game updates to spread the word for upcoming games.

   Whether you’re a student who is aspiring to attend their student section experience, or if you’re a student who has never missed a football game in their high school career, it takes every student to uphold the premium atmosphere that the student section holds.