Students at Traverse City West High School are celebrating after MHSAA announced they won their annual Battle of the Fans competition.
Student Senator Patrick Guiney says it’s been a three month process.
“With applications, semifinals, then finalist, then we end up winning which is really cool,” said Guiney.
Guiney explained that a lot more planning went into conducting the student section than most people would think.
“It required commitment throughout the whole year,” said Guiney. “We had awesome students, our school’s done a great job in going to games through fall sports, winter sports, whatever it is.”
Traverse City West’s students, otherwise known as the Bleacher Creatures, were selected among three finalists: TC West, Midland Dow and Buchanan.
The Titans were voted on by the MHSAA’s 16-member student advisory council. They also received nearly 9,000 total votes across various social media platforms, such as: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
Guiney recalls a game this winter when MHSAA showed up to judge their student section.
“That game was the most ridiculous atmosphere I’ve ever seen in my life,” stated Guiney. “Our students showed out, they did a fantastic job and MHSAA saw that and knew that they had to give it to us.”
Student Kale Cerny says he was excited to find out they won.
“After we found out I was going around telling people that they looked like a state champion because they were,” Cerny says. “Everyone who comes to the games and supports our athletes and supports our student section. They’ve been a big contributor to this whole scheme and how we came out.”
Cerny also plays for the schools football team, and says it was awesome to finally see fans in the stands.
“Last year we didn’t have a student section, so it was really nice this year having people out there,” Cerny explained. “Being out on the field and having an awesome student section is really incredible.”
© 2023 - 910 Media Group
