R-Unit Fans have newfound school spirit and pride

R-Unit+Fans+have+newfound+school+spirit+and+pride

Nick Runkel, Online Editor

What’s the best way to get paint out of your hair? Is this the right type of camo? Where do I get some baby powder? What clothes do I not mind getting water on? These are questions only members of the R-Unit have to answer.

“After every [football] game I walk in the house and my mom asks me what happened to my clothes and face and I have to tell her about the pink paint, or the baby powder after [the football team scores], or about the camo out,” senior Jacob Schreiman said.

At the beginning of the school year members of the senior class created a facebook group designed to coordinate with other students themes of the games; whether it be a white-out, black-out, blue-out, or a fake-out and to plan activities for the student section.

“We wanted to give people a chance to share ideas on how they wanted to dress for the [football] games,” senior Zev Gurowitz said.

The name of the student section comes from the question ‘R U N It?’.  The R-Unit facebook group has roughly 1200 members and contrary to past years, the student section now includes all grades.

“One of the reasons that we are a great [student section] is because everyone is in it, we have underclassmen there every game,” senior Julia Gastelle said.

The administration has seen a rise in student attendance from last season.

“I would guess there are around 500 people in the student section at every home game, I’ve never seen that many for all home games in all the years I’ve been at high school football games,” subschool 12 principal Scot Turner said.

Some people believe rise in student section attendance is attributed to the spirit of the senior class.

“It’s a good [senior] class, with great chemistry and an extraordinary amount of spirit,” Turner said. “It’s exciting to be a part of; [the student section] is really into it.”

Students agree that the spirit level is more extreme than in past years.

“We are the most spirited class ever; we are energetic, supportive, crazy and loud,” senior Kate Cunningham said, “We are the best.”

Football players agree, the student section is one of the most supportive they have ever seen.

“Our great fans make us want to do better, they are electrifying,” junior football player Darius Grady said.

One of the defining features of the R-Unit is the students’ commitment to each game’s theme.  For every game the R-Unit as a group decides how the students dress and members of the R-Unit are extremely dedicated to finding the best way to present each theme.

Senior Rylie Hirst said, for the pink-out the R-Unit had pink paint to go with our pink clothes, for the camo-out they went to Wal-Mart and got camo hats, shirts and pants. They tried to bring in branches, for the camo out but they weren’t able to.

For the Robinson-Lake Braddock game the R-Unit decided to hold a fake out. A fake out is when the fans show up to the game in black and at the opening kickoff change to white. The R-Unit added in their own twist by throwing baby powder in the air while they changed.

“At first I couldn’t see them and then I could see the shirts waving through the powder, it got me fired up,” football coach Scott Vossler said.

Turner said it is exciting to be a part of such great school spirit at games; it is a positive, good message about the school.

The R-Unit may not be the first student section to be created, but it is already known as one of the best.

Vossler said, “Since I started coaching I haven’t seen a better student section, [the R-Unit] is the best.”