Last year, our school was named most spirited high school in the nation, but what for? Our student section might be able to dance to the latest hits, and throw confetti in the air, but the purpose of Loud Crowd is to support, rather than outshine. Friday nights are for football, not the purple sea of students screaming “defense” at the top of their lungs.

While many students attend the games to dress up to the theme, and dance around in the wild student section, Loud Crowd leaders should acknowledge the purpose behind the cheers. Students should not be screaming “It’s CBAD time, it’s CBAD time, What? What?” directly after the alternate team has scored a touchdown. If the cheers are timed to our team’s wins, then we as a student body will be fulfilling the purpose of Loud Crowd; to support our football players.

Obviously our team can’t win every game, but we can celebrate our player’s hard work by cheering them on during good plays. However at the home game against Desert Vista when our team lost 33-21, Loud Crowd ran onto the field dancing to “All I Do is Win.” Not only does this give off the image that the football game is less important than the student section, but it allows our students to trample over the football players’ efforts.

Along with this, Loud Crowd should be more invested in off campus games. We might not be able to take the smoke blowing trash cans to La Costa Canyon, but we can take our school spirit. This would induce a stronger sense of school pride, and further motivate our boys on the field.

Obviously some students attend the football games strictly for the activities in Loud Crowd, and have no interest in football whatsoever, however regardless of this, every Loud Crowd member should look towards the history of the high spirited student section. Comprised and led by students, the crowd was created to motivate the football players and allow every student to participate in a new form of cheering. Hyping up the players and viewers during the game, Loud Crowd gained traction over the years ultimately leading to a packed student section and the victories of CIF’s 2016 Battle of the Fans, SoCal Sidelines 2017 Best Football Student Section and CIF’s 2018 Battle of the Fans. However with each new gadget or cheer, it seems we have distracted from the roots of the crowd.

Loud Crowd was made for the players.

Not the students.

Due to this, we should look towards the tweet that circulated amongst CHS students after the first home football game of 2018: “Petition for Loud Crowd to start fully supporting our boys on the field.”