- By Sports Information Intern Andrew Mann
OHSAA staff traveled to Delaware Buckeye Valley High School on Tuesday, February 3rd as part of the Battle for the Golden Megaphone contest. As a finalist in the contest, the Buckeye Valley student section truly showed what it meant to positively cheer for your team and exhibit excellent sportsmanship.
Dressed in all gold for the “Gold Out” theme, the Barons wasted no time getting loud and excited as members of the basketball team ran over to give high-fives during introductions. And while the basketball coach gave his last minute pep talk to the team, the seniors in the student section pumped up the crowd with a speech of their own.
“As far as sportsmanship is concerned, we work very hard it. We have meetings with the students and they use their twitter account (@Barons901) to relay the messages to the rest of the students,” said Jim Albanese, principal at Buckeye Valley. “They work hard to show proper sportsmanship.”
Throughout the game, the student section was loud, enthusiastic and constantly cheering on its own team. When the Barons knocked down a three-pointer, the entire student section would fall down as if they were blown away by the shot. Chants of “901!” filled the gymnasium. “Our student section is great and brings a ton of school spirit. Their sportsmanship is fantastic and they really make it a fun atmosphere for our guys and gals to play basketball,” noted Athletic Director Jeremy Froelich.
Chris Burns is one of the seniors who helps run the Twitter account and organize the student section cheers. “Buckeye Valley is a great community and we are all really close. We love supporting our team and our school and we have a lot of fun with it.”
“It was incredible to see the Buckeye Valley student section be so supportive and so loud throughout the game. Even when the team was losing in the third quarter, they continued to cheer and support,” said Andrew Mann, OHSAA staff member. “These students are leaders within their community and showed exactly what positive sportsmanship was about, along with having a great and fun time.”
