Champions Back to Grow 'Battle' Legacy
January 22, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
FRANKENMUTH -- Doyle Webb and his cousin were in Florida for spring break last April, walking to the beach, when they met a couple of girls.
They struck up some small talk, and Webb described his little German hometown known in part for its giant Christmas store that celebrates the holiday 361 days a year.
Not overwhelmingly impressed, perhaps, the girls “asked if there was anything else cool to do in our town,” Webb said.
So he pulled out his phone, pulled up a video of Frankenmuth High’s student cheering section in action, and “blew their minds.”
Webb has dialed up that YouTube clip more times than he can count over the last year since Frankenmuth won the MHSAA’s inaugural Battle of the Fans contest. Friends, family, complete strangers – he’s proudly shown it off to them all.
“People ask me what my winter sport is, and I say I lead the student section for basketball. They’re like, ‘Good for you,’” Webb said, imitating their light sarcasm.
“And then I pull out the YouTube video, and they are just like, ‘Wow.'"
This year already has provided a few more highlights to add to the reel. Frankenmuth again is among the five vying for this season’s Battle of the Fans II championship, and Friday was the first stop on this year’s MHSAA finalist tour. Buchanan is up next, followed by Vandercook Lake, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard and Zeeland East before the winner is announced Feb. 22.
For the Eagles, much of the championship story remains the same as last year – but with a few new chapters.
If three years ago was the section’s opening act and last year its defining performance, this year has been about not just an encore, but establishing a legacy and making participation in the cheering section a regular part of student life.
Of the school’s 507 students, roughly 70 percent participate in athletics. More than 250 – including a few rows of middle schoolers who have been recruited by the new section leaders – filled a large section of the gym for Friday’s game. “If you’re actively involved in an extracurricular activity,” Webb said, “the chances are you’re going to be actively involved in the student section.”
The buzz from last year’s BOTF title stayed hot into the summer, when it was replaced by discussions about what the section could do to up its game for 2012-13. The majority of last year’s leaders graduated last spring. But a group of athletes – Webb and seniors Blaine Malochleb and Ian Fischer, with a big assist from junior Katie DeGrace – began soliciting ideas from their classmates as soon as this school year got rolling. Last year’s leaders gave their blessing and a boost of support.
“They told me to not let them down, to keep the tradition. So we just found a good group of guys and tried to organize everything,” Fischer said of conversations with those new alums.
“Zack (Robinson, a leader last year) texted me and said, ‘You’re going to take my short jean shorts and sweater that I wore every home game, and you’re going to wear them, and you’re going to make me proud. And you’re going to defend the title.’”
The challenge this year has been keeping the repertoire fresh. Frankenmuth won last year’s “Battle” in part because of the fun, festive atmosphere from the opening tip until the final buzzer, and there again was plenty of singing and dancing during Friday’s “Christmas Night,” which originally was scheduled for a game just before the holiday break but always is relevant in a town known for its holiday spirit.
When Frankenmuth’s players came out for pre-game warm-ups, they were presented by the cheering section with two Christmas-wrapped basketballs. Webb passed out candy canes to passers-by, and tree lights hung from the gym balcony and bleacher railing. There were Santa hats and Christmas carols, the section’s traditional German chants and self-deprecating cheers like chanting “in our faces” when a Frankenmuth player’s shot was blocked.
“Essentially, it’s what we did last year,” Fischer said. “We set a new standard last year, as the best section in the state, and we had to up that this year.”
But halftime was the defining moment of this BOTF visit, a celebration, Malochleb said, “that I don’t think people have really seen before.”
After leading the section in some waves, spins and other moves, Fischer split the section, and Malochleb and senior Logan Gatza pretended to cut down a Christmas tree planted in the middle of the bleachers and carried it to center court. The gym went dark, the tree’s lights were turned on, and students emptied onto the floor for a verse of “Silent Night” followed by a quick dance party.
For Frankenmuth, it’s still about having a good time and representing the school and town – but also that “Battle” championship banner hanging on the gym wall.
“We used to see stuff like student sections trying to get in (opponents’) faces, get in their heads, mostly negative stuff,” Webb said. “Last year changed that with the emphasis of positive cheering from the MHSAA and the (BOTF) contest, and I think we really picked up on that. That’s changed a lot.
“The older you get, the more you realize how it’s supposed to be about the game, and it’s supposed to be fun.”
Subway is a sponsor of this season's Battle of the Fans II contest.
PHOTOS: (Top) Frankenmuth fans follow leader Doyle Webb (tan vest) during a cheer Friday. (Middle) Students gather around a Christmas tree at center court during halftime of the Eagles boys basketball game against Bridgeport. (Photos courtesy of Chip DeGrace.)
Fighting Irish Stand Together
February 7, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
ANN ARBOR – The day Bridget was taken off her ventilator, all of Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard gathered in the school’s chapel to pray for the 12-year-old member of their family who soon would finish her fight against a rare form of brain cancer.
Senior Adam Olszewski had never seen anything like it. He’s been around the school through the careers of multiple siblings and understands what makes his school a special place. But “her story touched everyone,” he said. “That’s the closest I've ever seen the Richard community.”
The saddest days at Gabriel Richard have only a slight connection with the Fighting Irish’s student cheering section, a finalist in this season’s MHSAA Battle of the Fans II.
But the collective camaraderie present as the school and community mourned signifies the solidarity that has made cheering at the “The Greenhouse” a decade-long tradition and regular part of student life.
“People who come through Richard or are around the Richard community, they say they see something different in how people interact with each other, how close we are,” Olszewski said. “It’s on a different level.”
And that togetherness was easy to recognize during the MHSAA’s Battle of the Fans visit Tuesday for the Fighting Irish’s boys basketball game against Madison Heights Bishop Foley.
Gabriel Richard – which finished sixth in the selection of five finalists for last season’s inaugural BOTF contest – was the third stop on this year’s tour. The MHSAA also has visited reigning champion Frankenmuth and Vandercook Lake, with trips coming up to Zeeland East and Buchanan before Facebook voting begins Feb. 19. The champion will be announced Feb. 22 on Second Half.
Olszewski’s memories of the Irish’s cheering section go back into the early 2000s. His oldest brother Jeff led it as well before graduating in 2008, and even before his family played a part, Adam remembers seeing mentions of the section in the local newspaper.
That recognition through the years has meant a lot to Gabriel Richard, which has 515 students and is much smaller than three Class A schools also sharing the city – Huron (1,810 students), Pioneer (1,670), and Skyline (1,645) – and its local media spotlight.
But in another obvious way, Gabriel Richard is different than its three larger counterparts. It’s a Catholic school, drawing students from multiple Catholic feeder schools, and in turn, multiple communities that border Ann Arbor.
Developing togetherness would seem to be difficult with students coming from various places each day. But the opposite has been true.
As Olszewski explained, the students at Gabriel Richard can find their own niches – sports, or drama, art or other interests. The classes also have retreats each year that bind them tighter.
At a school Gabriel Richard’s size, everyone knows everyone else at least by name or face, and at one point Tuesday the cheering section chanted for a cheerleader by name, at other times did the same for individual players, and Olszewski jokingly scolded individuals throughout the section as he led the cheers and kept the group organized.
The Irish cheerers can be found just about everywhere, even when multiple teams are playing on the same night. On Friday, a spirit bus will take students to the school’s hockey game before bringing them back to watch the boys basketball team. The section has shown up plenty of other places from Comerica Park for the Catholic League baseball final to the school’s powder puff football games.
“We’re definitely bonded,” senior Aaron Tishkoff said. “As a student section, we pride ourselves like that. … I had a friend ask, why can’t we do this at our school? People just won’t do it. And we’re like, we've always done that. That’s just what we do at basketball games.”
“When I got here, the first few (games), it was a lot different,” said senior Blaise Stearns, who transferred from another area school midway through last year. “Everyone comes here and just has fun. You get more close with everybody.”
A major bonding point is the school’s annual "Masquerade for Mott," a fundraiser for C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan. In its fourth year, the event includes nearly two weeks of fundraisers and cheering section theme nights, with the main event next Tuesday’s boys basketball game at Detroit Catholic Central – which joined with Gabriel Richard last year to create a fundraising competition.
A friend of Olszewski’s died last year from a heart condition, and he visited Mott to present the check from the 2012 "Masquerade." On Friday, the cheering section will have a “Zebra Night” in honor of Bridget, who was a big fan of the Gabriel Richard football team and whose favorite animal was a zebra.
Although Bridget’s older brother is an underclassmen at the high school, most of its students didn't know her. But they did know her story and felt bonded by being part of Gabriel Richard – and coming together in her honor again Friday will mean a lot.
Like they have this week for “Superhero Night,” “Beach Night,” and “’70s Night,” they’ll join together to have a good time for a good cause. The message is simple: This is fun. This is what we do. And this is what we'll continue to do when the next class takes over leadership at the front of the crowd.
“It’s a positive attitude, especially if they see the senior guys like us having a positive attitude. It’s really easy for them to follow,” Wolf said. It’s been a tradition here for so long. It’s not that hard for us to do. Kids know it’s Friday night, we go to a basketball game. That’s what we do; we go and have fun and we participate in the student section.”
Subway is a sponsor of this season's Battle of the Fans II contest.
PHOTO: (Top) Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard students follow leader Adam Olszewski as they ride the "roller coaster" during Tuesday's boys basketball game against Madison Heights Bishop Foley. (Middle) "Moses" emerges from the top of the Gabriel Richard student section. (Photo courtesy of Todd Sexton.)