By Hailey Paulson
West football players are being lead to victory with the help of the 12th man generating energy and roars from the student crowd.
The 12th man is a group of students from West who hype up the crowds to cheer on the football team. This year’s 12th man group includes seniors Alex Fall, Dalton Graves, Sam Breshears, Dylan Bestgen, Ryan Waits, Adem Salem, Hayden Diebold and Talbott Buford .
Senior Alex Fall expressed his appreciation to serve for this regarded position. “It feels good to be able to represent the school and get the energy going at the football games and every sporting event,” said Fall. The legendary experience of a Titan football game relies heavily on the atmosphere provided.
The 12th man strives to engage the crowd in providing an experience like no other. People all around feel the vibration from the stomping of the bleachers to the roars of Titan students that penetrate to the very core.
Freshman Collette Miller witnessed one of football games and said, “It was exciting and fun to watch…it was fun to have them [12th man] getting everybody excited…they impacted the spirit of everyone in the stands.”
The 12th man aims to “get everybody on their feet and get everybody going, and help the team out as much as we can,” said the group as a whole.
“We just like to get the school going and get the loudest crowd we can for our brothers on the field…we are trying to make it a college atmosphere. We are trying to make so the people on the field, like the players can’t even hear each other cause we are that loud…we want the other coaches to not even be able to call time out,” said Fall.
Last years 12th man made a lasting impression on the West student body. “The 12th man was huge in it, because they get everybody excited running up, crowd surfing, running out after touchdowns, it’s a very exciting atmosphere…It’s still pretty similar because a lot of the guys this year were juniors in it last year…the juniors they’ve brought in are very good as well,” said junior Sam Stott.
West lost an especially inspiring hype man named DJ Brasfield. However, the 12th man group feels they have learned some good pointers to drive the crowds into cheers.
Brasfield taught the new group of boys to “get buff in the off season…good motivation skills, he really gets a crowd going, so altogether a good showing from him to show us the ropes and show us how to do it,” said Fall and senior Ryan Waits.
Although West lost many students who were crucial to the Titan Football atmosphere last year, this year’s 12th man seems more than ready to take the ropes.
“We are ready to take over this year,” said Fall. There is a tradition here at West in which the seniors on the 12th man train a few selected juniors to take over the job after the seniors graduate. Fall described the process in which he endured to find the right men for the job.
“Well, energy…we did background researches… thorough background checks,” said Fall. “Three of us were picked last year as juniors to carry on the tradition this year and we pick our brothers to carry it out this year with us.”
Senior Talbott Buford was chosen in the tryouts for 12th man and was eager to be apart of this legendary tradition.
“I like the hype of everything and I like being known around school, and I thought that was a good thing,” said Buford.
The three junior apprentices to the 12th man are Ryan Joseph, Mason Visconti, and Hayden Gragg. In addition to the three juniors there was one sophomore, Morgan Potts, who was able to score a spot on the 12th man. Ryan Joseph was proud to be apart of this year’s squad.
“It’s a big accomplishment and I feel honored…I have a lot more to learn,” said Joseph. However Joseph does feel he has learned some valuable lessons.
“Cheer on but have respect, don’t be trashy…you can still cheer and have fun…we bring a positive energy, a hype energy to the games and get everybody really loud and it gets everybody jumping,” said Joseph.
The 12th man advises the student crowd to “come to the games and be loud…go crazy…West is a living being…We are all one,” said seniors Alex Fall, Adam Salem, and Talbott Buford.
