When football players are at a game, motivation from the crowd along with the cheerleaders are important to provide moral support for the team to put in the extra effort to win the game.
But there is another group that also provides support for the team and that is the Hype Squad. The Hype Squad consists of students who stand at the front of the bleachers who on top of supporting the team, gets the rest of the crowd excited for the game.
Unfortunately, the current state of the Hype squad is less than ideal, with opinions from all different perspectives being at an all time low. Many students say that they do not live up to their name of the Hype squad as people call the group “Dead.”
Even the Hype Squad members say that it could be better. For example, senior Hype squad member Hakim Idris said, “I blame how the bleachers are right now, it’s awkward and parents are in the student section and it’s killing my vibe.”
While the Hype Squad can mean well and want their team to succeed the very thing they are doing to support the team can also hinder them as well.
“It gets us excited and energized but when you cheer when we’re about to snap the ball we can’t hear,” said junior Nick Bellem.
The current standing can be felt by the leadership club who makes up most of the Hype Squad. “When I heard that the Hype Squad was ‘dead’ I was kinda disappointed,” said junior Alexis Granados. “Because we do as much as we (leadership) can do, to you know promote football games like when we sell spirit wear for specific games like red outs, blackouts, and for the breast cancer stuff so there’s not much we can do but it was kinda disappointing because we do all we can.”
With the circumstances the way they are now, the Hype Squad will either be critiqued for not being loud enough or or being too loud for the football team, resulting in a lose-lose situation.
But the public opinion of the Hype Squad does not always need to be so bleak. As past iterations of the Hype Squad have not garnered these kinds of opinions.
It may be possible that past Hype Squads had it easier. There is merit in the idea that the current setup of the newly installed bleachers can have an effect on the performance of the Hype Squad. The new bleachers are set up in a way as to where parents attending the game are right up next to the Hype Squad.
And as previously stated parents being in or near the Hype Squad could affect or even ruin the Hype Squads performance in trying to excite the crowd or cheer on their team.
When the Hype Squad’s situation is looked at in that kind of light it seems as if their current situation was going to be inevitable with the bleachers bringing changes that could affect how well the Hype Squad can excite the crowd and cheer on the team.
This could mean that the set-up of the bleachers is what is hindering the Hype Squad’s performance, not the actual people in the group itself contrary to what many student criticize the group for.
This can be a major problem for the Hype Squad because no matter how hard they try to keep the the crowd excited they will always be criticized because of how the bleachers effect their performance.
But while the Hype Squad may have found themselves in a bad situation even before the first football game with the set up of the new bleachers, There is always the chance that public perception of the Hype Squad can change from pessimistic to encouraging and even support for the group.