The JROTC Spirit team consists of 15 cadets whose purpose is to bring energy to varsity football games by having spirit and hyping up the football team.

According to sophomore Joel Campbell, during the game they find motivation and spirit in each other so if the game isn’t going well, spirit isn’t lost throughout the stadium.

JROTC is a student-led organization taught by Colonel Brooks McFarland and Sergeant Lisa Breuer. Junior Nick Ramos is the commander of Delta Flight. His job is to manage the Spirit Team along with choosing who’s on the team.The Spirit team is a special team which cadets sign up for. Students with good attitudes and spirit are chosen to be a part of the team.

“I wanted to be on the team because I wanted to show spirit and represent our school,” Campbell said. “I continue to be on it because it’s a really awesome team to be on and it’s super fun.”

The Spirit Team starts game days by running the flags during lunch. This way they bring spirit to the school, while getting everyone in the right mindset for the night. The team made its official debut in 2010-2011, when JROTC became its own unit and when the school got its own varsity football team.

“We had an opportunity to show spirit in different way on the field and they needed an organization to manage that and can see it done right with a certain amount of respect and pride, so we created it and made it part of our organization,” McFarland said.

Blowing up the wall and tunnel for the football team to run through, is one of many responsibilities the team has. It takes a total of 25 minutes to inflate and put up the wall and tunnel. The wall is 45 feet long and takes eight students to put it up, along with the tunnel which only needs three. Some also hold ropes to keep the inflatable wall up and operate the blowers and smoke machine. There is always a backup plan for anything that could go wrong.

“It’s not as easy as it looks since we all have to know what to do at that exact time and if something happens then we have to jump on it as soon as possible, otherwise more things could happen,” Ramos said.

When the football team scores, five individuals from the spirit team run across the field with flags in hand wearing three pound boots while trying to keep perfect spacing between each to spell EAST. These flags are eight feet tall and the biggest flag at the end is seven and a half feet tall. Along with running the flags, the team keeps school flags up at equal heights and waves them during the school song at the end of the night.

“It really takes a lot of energy to run the letters and the big flag since it is so much heavier than it looks,” Ramos said.

With the tasks the Spirit Team is entrusted with, they also have fun interacting with the cheerleaders, football players and band to show spirit. The team has its own traditions including doing push ups when the football team scores; after 27 push ups they pull out a board. A cadet then gets on top to do push-ups while the rest of the team holds them up in the air. The team also has their own chants and hand gestures they do during kick off. They join the band in screaming, cheering and dancing while the drumline plays the cadence “Afrow”.

“My first impression was this is a huge group of the nicest, most accepting people. From the start, I was brought into the JROTC family and they made me so much better,” Campbell said. “I have all my confidence because of them.”