Meet the “Zone”
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The Waukee Northwest 2024-2025 student section theme is construction and is led by a group of twelve senior and junior boys.
The group is known as the “Zone,” and it consists of seniors Max McBride, Nate Hipwell, Landry Goldsworth, JT Spalding, Ryan Carpenter, Roman Punelli, Nikson Vansyalom, Andrew Kivlin and juniors Xavier Bernstine and Zak Shlomi. The Zone’s main responsibility is to hype up the student section with cheers and team spirit. The Zone will mainly be at football, basketball, volleyball and baseball games throughout the school year.
“[Being a student section leader] involves being loud and interacting with fans to keep them involved in the game,” stated McBride.
Each year, the section leaders choose two juniors to be a part of the group, who will then be the main leaders for the following year. For the 2023-2024 school year, McBride and Punelli were the juniors selected. The two of them worked together to choose and form the new group of leaders for the 2024-2025 school year. The number of leaders grew this year, expanding from a group of ten to a group of twelve. More leadership in the stands gives the student section more opportunities for a bigger and louder crowd.
“Every year, there’s two juniors that are a part of the front fence, and last year, it was me
and Max,” stated Punelli.
The other responsibility of the leaders is to choose a new student section theme for that year. McBride and Punelli collaborated with the rest of the Zone to decide the theme and what they would wear to be identified by the fans.
“We have vests with our faces on the back with funny nicknames, and we wear hard hats that we customized,” stated Spalding. On top of the main costumes, Kivlin also dresses in an orange construction cone outfit.
The Zone enters every football game right before the game starts. They will walk up the stands waving the Northwest and American flags. As the Zone approaches the student section, it is the cue to stand up and start to cheer. The Zone will hype the crowd up and, along with the cheerleaders, help start the “I believe that we will win” cheer.