Students of all grades gather at the football field on Friday nights to cheer on their Spartan football team. Football games are a pastime that many students attend to hang out with their friends and watch the game. It is tradition for each football game to include a theme, which the students carry out.

Themes are chosen by student council through the traditions and wants of the student body. In past years, the Rock Bridge game was a Hawaiian theme, a theme chosen by student council to continue the tradition. Destiny Dollinger, president of Student Council, explained how the themes are chosen.

Dollinger said, “For football themes each week we come up with fun things that we think everyone could participate in.”

There are many students who love to attend Battle football games for different reasons. Senior Joe Lee attends many football games and hypes up the crowd by participating in the themes and influencing student involvement.

Lee said, “I’m loud so that helps, and with the help of Isaiah DeShon, Trevor Dubinski, and Brandon Marks, we are able to coordinate to try to make a successful chant work.”

Although the themes are chosen to encourage students to stay involved, conflict sometimes occurs when opinions differ when choosing a theme. The Student Council Twitter page held polls the week of home football games, to decide the week’s theme. When holding the poll for the first week, students showed disinterest in the suggested themes.

Dollinger explained that students who want to have input are able to sit in on meetings and suggest themes for future football games.

Dollinger said, “We need people to come to us and tell us they don’t like certain things.” She continued, “Anyone can help and put their input in because all of our meetings, unless otherwise specified, are open to the student body, and we would much rather hear feedback from students and teachers.”

Outside of the tradition of themes, there is an unofficial seating chart created by the upperclassmen that follows the rule of seniority. The popular rule, seen in facebook posts and in our own stands, shows seniors sitting in the front of the stands while freshmen stand in the back of the stands.

Lee explained the unwritten rule. He said, “Seniors have been here the longest so this is their last season, so we prefer upperclassmen to sit in the front and so on and so forth,” he continued, “Juniors, sophomores, and freshman in the back, because you guys have more time to be here and see all the football games.”

For freshmen, the idea of sitting in the back due to being new to the school can be intimidating. Freshman Becca Gaither explained how she sees the unspoken seating chart: “I do not think that is fair, we should all be able to sit together as one.”

Football themes are seen by some as ways to further enjoy the football game; however, some believe they could further enjoy the game if there was not a precedent they had to follow. Either way, football games can be enjoyed by many, and rooting on your home football team is a way for people to rally around a widely enjoyed community event.