'Creatures' Build Beaverton Legacy
January 20, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
BEAVERTON – Nate O’Brien has had a hand in his share of traditions at Beaverton High School.
He’ll be the latest of two generations to graduate this spring, and in the fall he quarterbacked the football team to its best record since 2000. For the last two basketball seasons, he’s been honored as caretaker of the Beaver Slide – literally, a chest slide across the floor to Beaverton’s bench to end pre-game warmups – while suiting up for coach Roy Johnston, the second-winningest in MHSAA boys hoops history. On Friday, the Beavers continued a series with rival Gladwin played for Butch, a stuffed animal trophy awarded to the yearly winner in football and boys basketball since 1937.
But O’Brien already is looking forward to watching another legacy continue when his time as a student is done this spring.
In a few years, he’ll be sitting at basketball games with parents instead – and will watch and cheer the next generation of “Bleacher Creatures” as they continue a local point of pride he and his classmates raised to statewide renown.
“I want to sit on the other side of the bleachers and watch the student section, what we built, just start going crazy,” O’Brien said. “Help them with ‘Go Red! Go White!’ and see what they do.”
In the meantime, he and the rest of the current Creatures will continue to build a legacy that includes last season’s “Battle of the Fans” championship.
BOTF III champion Beaverton is again a finalist to be named the MHSAA’s top high school student section, and Friday hosted the first visit of this season’s MHSAA finalists tour. The MHSAA next will visit Yale, this Friday, followed by Buchanan, St. Johns and Dowagiac leading up to the naming of this year’s champion Feb. 20. The public may vote for its favorite on the MHSAA’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sites beginning Feb. 17, with the MHSAA Student Advisory Council taking that vote into consideration when selecting the champion after that vote has concluded.
Not much has changed – in the best possible way – since last year’s Beaverton visit.
A brief review:
The original Bleacher Creatures emerged in 1979 and gained steam during the Beaverton boys basketball team’s run to the MHSAA Class C Semifinals in 1984. The section continued to thrive and now counts at least a handful of second-generation cheerers in its fourth decade.
While notable and popular, the Creatures weren’t always completely appropriate. That changed when the section became a spirit club in 2013-14; hierarchy was created complete with officers, video, photo and music coordinators and creative and fundraising leaders. They led some philosophical changes – notably refocusing the section’s fervor toward positivity and fun – and won a close race for the BOTF III title.
Then came serving as grand marshals of the town’s July 4 parade and a suggestion from one of the state’s Division II men’s basketball coaches that section leaders give his school a look for college – with the idea that they could start something similar at his university. Johnston, who has coached since 1971, told senior Jen Eaton her efforts had made school more fun again. All the while, the Creatures saw as an always-supportive community supplied even more – and they began planning for a run at the first repeat championship in BOTF’s brief history.
Make no mistake – last year’s push for change was motivated by the opportunity to win Battle of the Fans. This year’s effort is driven by the same – but has become much more for a group of section leaders who also played the major roles in 2013-14: seniors Drew Porter, Janessa Killian, Breanna Frasher, Eaton and O’Brien and junior Braeden Wolfe.
“I’ve learned through (BOTF) how important positivity is. I can remember coming (to games) when I was younger and hearing some of the things our student section would say, and you’d be like, ‘Wow, that’s not good for a sixth grader to hear,’” Frasher said. “Even as freshman I’d hear people say stuff and think that’s not OK. Now when we’re looking up chants on YouTube, trying to find new things, we’re like, ‘No, we can’t do that. That’s not in the realm of good sportsmanship.’ We’ve definitely learned how to be good sports.”
They’ve had to adjust to a few changes this school year; most notably seventh and eighth graders moving into the high school this fall, along with a new principal and athletic director. But those changes also provided opportunities for the section.
“It felt like we had to go above and beyond what we did last year,” Porter said. “When we won last year, it set a bar. Other schools are gunning to beat us because we won last year, so we have to do whatever is in our power to one-up ourselves.”
Porter spoke with the seventh and eighth graders, a meeting that drew about 25 students a year ago. This time? Standing room only with closer to 75.
Leaders decided the best way to get better was to get more creative and asked classmates over Facebook for ideas – and got valuable response. Relying on what they’ve learned about logistics and sportsmanship, the Creatures ended up with a repertoire that included their traditional cheers and chants during game action and a variety of “skits” for the breaks and halftime – including their tradition of Moses parting the “Red Sea” and also a first-time appearance by Barbie and a powerful dunk over 6-foot-8 athletic director Ryan Roberts under a mini hoop. “We want the crowd to laugh their guts out or think, ‘That’s a really good idea,’” Wolfe said.
Successors have been identified; sophomore Austin Rhodes is the club’s current vice president and with Wolfe will continue as leaders after these seniors are gone, and Eaton will hand the technical work to a freshman who approached her about the club on the first day of school.
They’ll take over with a wealth of knowledge learned during the Battle of the Fans run – notably, how to rally the school’s 420 students to support their teams, but also how to do so in the correct and championship-caliber way.
“It became such a greater thing that I ever thought it was going to (be),” Wolfe said. “Starting off, I was like, ‘It’s the school student section; this is cool.’ But I never thought it was going to be something where you’re walking through the streets of Beaverton and people notice you for doing that. I never thought it would be something that people remembered you for. It’s awesome that it’s going to be.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Beaverton "Bleacher Creatures" cheer on their boys basketball team Friday against Gladwin. (Middle) Seniors Breanne Frasher, Janessa Killian and Jen Eaton are among leaders of the school's student cheering section. (Photos courtesy of Bob Frei.)
MHSAA Teams Up for Leadership Training
October 2, 2014
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
Nothing strengthens a community like neighbors working together. The same can be said for organizations whose missions and goals are closely aligned.
Welcome to East Lansing, where the MHSAA and the Michigan State University Institute for the Study of Youth Sports share geographical boundaries and the same philosophies for educational athletics.
The ISYS mission, as stated on its website, is as follows: “The mission of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports is to provide leadership, scholarship and outreach that ‘transforms’ the face of youth sports in ways that maximize the beneficial physical, psychological, and social effects of participation for children and youth while minimizing detrimental effects.”
That should sound familiar to athletic leaders within the MHSAA.
Key to the relationship between the MHSAA and the ISYS was the hiring of Dan Gould to the MSU faculty in 2004. Director of the ISYS, he helped to facilitate one of the first major initiatives between the ISYS and the MHSAA, which was to revamp the coaches education program, replacing the PACE program with the Coaches Advancement Program (CAP). Dr. Larry Lauer of the ISYS was heavily involved in creation of the CAP under the direction of MHSAA Assistant Director Kathy Vruggink Westdorp.
At the same time, Dr. Gould also led a study with athletic directors and coaches throughout the state to understand the greatest issues in high school sports. Additionally, to continue the ISYS mission to disseminate research findings, Dr. Marty Ewing, Dr. Gould, and a number of the ISYS graduate students have been presenters at the MHSAA Women in Sport Leadership Conference.
Such services have now become a natural fit into the development of the MHSAA’s student leadership programs, providing huge dividends to those in the ISYS program and the MHSAA.
“The mutually beneficial relationship led to a joint project to enhance student-athlete development with a specific focus on leadership development,” said Scott Westfall, one of two ISYS graduate students who work closely with MHSAA Director of Brand Management Andy Frushour.
Frushour spearheads the student-based programs at the MHSAA with assistance from Andi Osters and Paige Winne. Among the first ISYS students to work with the MHSAA were Dana Voelker and Jed Blanton, who helped conceptualize the Captains Clinics curriculum. Today at the clinics, ISYS graduate students lead one-day seminars that provide student-athletes with insight on how to understand themselves as leaders, build key leadership skills and handle tough situations on their teams.
Currently, Westfall and Scott Pierce are the ISYS members providing their time and expertise with the MHSAA Student Advisory Council, Captains Clinics, and a new Online Captains Course set to debut this school year.
The Course is student-driven, with two SAC members serving as the faces of the program. Such peer delivery is vital to delivering the messages.
“Students often view leadership from teachers, coaches and administrators as regular, everyday activity. While adults are highly respected figures, students often see adults as outsiders who do not fully understand what it is like to walk a mile in their shoes,” Westfall said.
“The power is rooted in the peer-to-peer relationships and mutual empathy, as student-athletes are very close in age. Student-based leadership is often held with higher validity because the student leader is likely experiencing many of the same adversities and temptations as the peers on his or her team.”
Adding value and credence to the opinions of the ISYS staff is the fact they are steeped in research. The ISYS can gear its efforts to surveys and field studies that the MHSAA, due to staff constraints, cannot. It’s what the ISYS does; it’s the forte of its staff, and the findings help to shape CAP, the SAC and Captains Clinics.
“Research tells us that when kids get to middle school and high school, peer comparison has a really strong influence on how students and student-athletes act and behave,” said Pierce. “Based on this, we believe that student leaders can, and do, act as important role models on the field and in the classroom.
“It is not always easy for students to stand up as leaders because often times this means standing up and being different. So while student-based leadership is vitally important, it doesn't happen automatically. It needs to be talked about and developed over time.”
The MHSAA Captains Clinics and upcoming online course, it is believed, are examples of programs which can develop leaders.
“One of the leadership quotes we used in Tier 1 of the online student leadership course is from Vince Lombardi. It states: ‘Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile,’” said Westfall. “This type of sentiment, combined with the joint belief between the ISYS and the MHSAA that leadership skills can be taught and cultivated, leads us to believe that leadership can be developed in an individual.”
Through such development, real inroads can be made to promote sportsmanship, teamwork and citizenship in school sports. It’s a worthwhile endeavor for participants, both attendee and instructor.
“Our staff finds the MHSAA Captains Clinics to be some of the most enjoyable and rewarding work that we do,” Pierce said. “The events focus on building leadership in the student-athletes, and give us (ISYS) an ideal opportunity to put our research and scientific knowledge into practice with the students and have a lot of fun doing so.”
Throughout the year, Frushour works with schools and conferences to schedule dates and locations for the clinics. For each day-long clinic, three to five ISYS staff lead a series of workshops for high school student-athletes. The workshops focus on building the four key pillars of leadership – motivation, communication, positive peer-modeling and team cohesion – and have the students involved in discussions, group activities, journaling and role plays.
“We are always trying to find new ways to integrate the new knowledge that we acquire about leadership and trying to reach as many students as possible,” said Pierce, alluding to the forthcoming Online Captains Course. “The online course aims to build off the great things the MHSAA and the ISYS have done with the Captains Clinics.”
A tremendous amount of enthusiasm surrounds the project, and for good reason. The track record of the MHSAA-ISYS partnership reflects a successful venture that might just be hitting stride.
“Over the past 15 years, the relationship between the ISYS and the MHSAA has blossomed. It is to the credit of the forward-thinking MHSAA staff members along with the ISYS faculty and graduate students that this relationship is stronger than ever,” Westfall said. “With the arrival of Dr. Karl Erickson to the ISYS this fall, the upcoming MHSAA coaching requirements for CAP courses, and the launch of the Online Captains Course, the future looks bright for the ISYS-MHSAA team.”
PHOTO: Scott Westfall from the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports conducts a Captains Clinic session as part of his work with the MHSAA.