Anna Miller & Ainsley Sutter
eSomethin Staff
“We are really seeing more Jacket pride than ever,” said Mia Haschak.
After a hiatus last year, football season festivities have come back stronger and more creative than ever. The unique list of themes that goes with both football season, and the traditional Maumee week has students talking.
The student section of Jacket fans, better known as The Swarm, is trying new themes for football games this year like the Toga Out against Findlay, and the Pirate Out against Springfield. Similarly, themes for spirit week stand out as well. Who is responsible for these never-seen-before ideas?
Senior Pride club executive officers Mia Haschak and Daniel Tomalak spilled on how they and the rest of the club came up with the themes.
Tomalak credited part of their successes to the size of Pride club: “We have a fairly large executive board for pride club, and have a lot of members in the actual club, and with that many great minds working together, we were able to come up with some of the best themes this school has ever had.”
After last year’s lack of school spirit (due to COVID), Haschak credited Ron DeGregorio, (co-adviser of Pride club), with uptick in hype.
“During our first group bonding Mr. D sat us down and emphasized how big this year needs to be. That was our motivation,” Haschak said.
The Pride club executive board wanted a huge emphasis on school spirit.
The Toga Out was a huge indicator of this buzzing spirit. Despite togas being new to the football theme lineup, it was received incredibly positively.
Haschak said, “We expected many people to come, but the overall energy of the students is something we could have dreamed of.”
Increased excitement also comes from new chants/cheers created by the spirit squad (pictured in their togas above).
The chant “Dawg check” where students bark were created on the fly by the squad. Tomalak, who is a part of the squad, said, “it’s a good chant because it is quick, loud, and good for both, offense and defense.” The chants and the themes combined are what make the Swarm what it is.
Haschak said, “It was really amazing to see and be a part of.”
Buckeye Cable Sports Network (BCSN) noticed this outpour of enthusiasm and crowned Perrysburg the Student Section of the Week for week two of their competition. BCSN will name the best student section of the year in NW Ohio/ SE Michigan later this year as part of the contest.
Tomalak is incredibly proud of the energy brought by the Swarm, “[he] can’t think of a single student section that is even close to us.” This energy will remain steady and upbeat throughout the halls of PHS during the long-standing tradition of Maumee week.
Themes for this year’s spirit week include:
Underclassmen can expect this newfound energy to continue throughout their high school years. Haschak has “a lot of faith in Ian Crisenberry and Kelsey Cloyne,” the current junior executive board members, to “make it even bigger than right now.”
Basketball themes are expected to follow the high energy with unique outfits; however, Tomalak said, “we can’t spoil them.”
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