'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.)
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.)