Above the waves of rain and the howling wind, it was hard to hear anything in the stands at Center Grove’s semistate win against Ben Davis.
But that didn’t dampen the spirit of the hardy group of students who traveled to Indianapolis, braving a cold and wet night.
Just as they had throughout the season, the Center Grove students organized chants, wore matching outfits and screamed as loud as they could for their team.
"Our goal is to be loud enough to affect the morale of the team, to get them pumped up knowing we’re there to support them," said Josh Hall, a senior at Center Grove and one of the leaders of the student cheer block.
The student block of supporters have followed the Trojans throughout the season, coming up with unique and entertaining ways to both pump up the team while getting their classmates interested in the games.
Today’s state championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium is the pinnacle of the year for the football team itself as well as its supporters. Just like the team will give its maximum effort on the field to win, the student block plans to leave it all in the stands.
"Being friends with a lot of guys on the team, it’s fun to be in the student section," said senior Griffin Smith. "We enjoy getting rowdy."
Preparations for each game is spearheaded by a handful of senior students. They come up with funny themes and ways to dress, to get Center Grove students excited to go to the game.
On the opening weekend of the season, they wore Hawaiian shirts and swim suits for a beach theme. Against Carmel High School, the students tweaked their rival — and future state championship game opponent — by dressing as preppies.
They’ve done togas, Halloween costumes and a disco-tinged ’70s night. For the Risky Business theme, they donned button-down shirts, sunglasses and tighty-whities underwear like Tom Cruise’s character in the popular movie.
"It’s not every day that you get to show up at school in your underwear," Smith said.
The theme each week is sent out on a special Center Grove student Twitter feed.
"We want people to get the word, to get more people to the games," Hall said. "With Twitter, it’s so easy. We just tweet it out and people retweet it themselves."
Students tailgate before certain games, so organizers need to line up tents, food, games and other aspects of the pregame festivities.
"Kids will line up at 5 p.m. or even 4:45, just so that they’re the first ones in and can get a front row seat for the game," Hall said. "There are some dedicated fans."
Organizers also line up chants and cheering to up the noise level during the game itself. When a player runs for a touchdown or catches a scoring past, they break out personalized sayings of encouragement.
They have special outbursts as well, such as O-L-O-D — "O-Line or Die" — to pay homage to the offensive line players toiling in the trenches.
"We want to be as loud as we can to motivate the players," Hall said. "Seeing the stands full and everyone be loud, it gives the players an extra boost. It pumps them up more, that all of these people are here to watch and support them."
Hall has the perspective of what the student support is like from the field. He was formerly on the Center Grove team, playing as part of the state championship squad in 2015. He decided not to play this year to focus on his track-and-field career.
"I have a bunch of friends on the team that I’ve played with since kindergarten, so I love those guys. Seeing them successful on the field is one of my favorite things," he said.
The plan for the state championship game is a massive tailgate party at Lucas Oil Stadium, where Center Grove students, parents and supporters can all come together and get ready for the game as one.
Students will be out of school for Thanksgiving break, so they’ll have more time to devote to preparing, Hall said.
As far as setting a theme for the night, organizers plan to keep it simple.
"We’ll probably just do a red-out and have everyone dress in red," Hall said.
