Bloomington High School South’s new Panther Athletic Council has a mission to bring back panther spirit to school sporting events.
The Panther Athletic Council is a student-led group consisting of Bloomington South athletes. Seniors Blake Azcui and Mia Brauner are the student presidents behind PAC.
At the club’s meeting, Azcui said, “the main reason we’re creating this club is because it’s pretty clear that our student sections haven’t been very good. The representation of the class, and going to games, and supporting each other is something we’d like to see.”
The student sections at the athletic events have been bare and the excitement for these events is gone. “I look up to the crowd and I see by the first quarter everyone leaves or sometimes it [was never] even full,” Azcui said. PAC strives to fix this issue.
“It’s kinda sad to see…you go to a volleyball game and there’s not even a student section anymore. You go to a basketball game and there’s two rows,” Azcui said. The student sections are already becoming more energetic this school year due to PAC’s actions.
Azcui said, “this is the best idea we [have] had because the only people that can change that is ourselves. You want to have a student section, then the student body has to go to the games.”
Not only does student participation at games create a fun atmosphere to be in, but school spirit has real benefits for the students. According to Varsity Brands (an organization that partners with schools to build school pride), students with higher levels of school spirit perform better academically, are more civically engaged, and are happier in general than less-spirited students. These students are also proven to have a higher GPA and are more likely to further their education.
Brauner said, “we just want to make the events more exciting,”
The club needs two easy things from South students:
1. Give ideas
2. Attend games
An issue that South students have mentioned is that they want to go to games but they know nobody will be there to support athletics. PAC had the idea to make a group chat with all the members of the club where everyone can plan to go to certain events so it will be guaranteed that other students will be there. In addition to the company, the more fans that show up, the more support there will be for the athletes.
Brauner exemplifies how panthers should support panthers, “if you play baseball and you go to all of the basketball games then you can count on the basketball team to go to your games. That’s the culture we want to create. We all want to do it for each other.”
Statistics from Varsity Brands inform us that 91% of students with school spirit are more confident, 90% are more likely to be leaders, 88% are happier, and 87% are more active in their communities. All around, it is reported that 73% are more fulfilled.
Bringing back panther spirit to Bloomington South will have lasting benefits on students, our school, and the community surrounding us.
