After two years of losing to local rival Heritage high school, Leesville is looking to go back to its roots and reclaim the title of having the best student section in the area. Not having won the HighSchoolOT.com Student Section Showdown since 2009, Looneyville is ramping up the spirit this season in order to bring back the championship banner to Marshall L. Hamilton Stadium.
HighSchootOT.com is mixing up the competition this year. For the past six years, students have sent in written nominations to explain why their student section is the best but this time the judges want to see why. Each school is allowed to send in one video. There are no limitations on how creative each video can be as long as it stays appropriate. All submissions will be accepted until 5 p.m. on September 30.
Dylan Henrickson, a senior interested in creating movies, was asked to take on the responsibility of making the Pride’s film. “I was trying to capture the emotions and the chants and rants of the students. I like to get a lot of shots where people took up the entire screen so it wasn’t just showing the bleachers and everything around it but it focused on a certain area of people to show the different things that they were doing,” said Henrickson.
Henrickson began his filming at the Pride’s first home game against Panther Creek and will continue to get bits and pieces from upcoming games as well. He estimates the video will be four to five minutes in length.
The finalists of the Student Section Showdown will be named on October 1. Once the final schools are named, text message voting begins. This will run through midnight on October 2.
Coach Frazier, a gym teacher and the varsity men’s basketball coach, is confident in Leesville’s ability to take home the title.
“We need to connect the past and the present and start renewing old traditions from when we actually had the best student section. We have a strong senior class with strong leadership and we are motivated to do so,” said Frazier.
Once the final voting comes to an end, HighSchoolOT.com will appear at a home game to present the Student Section Showdown championship banner to the winning student section.
