Spirit Squad is a new organization of student leaders curated to support student-athletes and enhance school spirit at Benilde-St. Margaret’s sports games. To build BSM spirit and encourage positive involvement at sports games, members strive to bring more energy to school events.
With the help of the student council, student participants, and student council advisor Kathrine Johnson, the spirit squad was formed with the goal of ramping up school pride and creating student leaders. The new group will channel school spirit, by ensuring students stay Above the Line, creating engaging chants, and hyping up the crowd. Senior spirit squad leader, Genevieve DeCesare explains more about what spirit squad is supposed to be. “[Our goal is to] just make sure our student section is being respectful and being supportive when people are going to games and attending and supporting our school,” DeCeasare said.
[Our goal is to] just make sure our student section is being respectful and being supportive when people are going to games and attending and supporting our school.
— Genevieve DeCeasare
Johnson hopes for students to get behind the spirit squad and follow their influence as they progress through high school. Johnson remarks that there is a fine line between being cheesy and inspirational, so she hopes Red Knights will be supportive. “It’s important for the seniors to lead the charge in school and to come together and bring people together at sporting events to encourage people to be above the line,” Johnson said.
As one BSM community, it is important to maintain sportsmanship while representing our school. Another senior spirit squad leader, Maggie Graczyk remarks that she is excited for the opportunity to be a student leader and create new chants. Graczyk believes when students are given the opportunity to participate in the student section, they are more likely to attend more games. “Spirit Squad is a great group of seniors who are passionate about fun sports, and just the overall Red Knight idea. I think that we embody positive behavior, and we want to spread that to the rest of the school,” Graczyk said.
Although the spirit squad’s main focus is to keep students above the line and encourage school spirit, DeCesare explains that the benefit to student-athletes is just as important. When the student section is more energized, so are the student-athletes. A win for any BSM team is a win for the entire school. “I’ve noticed from experience that if there’s a student section at my game, I feel more ready to go and more amped up; just knowing that people are there to support my team and the hard work we’ve done. It makes me feel better as an athlete on the field,” DeCesare said.
With the spirit squad, BSM is looking at a future of spirited, high-energy games that will bring Red Knights together to help student-athletes feel appreciated and bonded with the Red Knight community.