Football season is back! (and so is the madness)

Exposing crowd culture at Arapahoe football games

Luke+Pelletier%2C+Camden+Castellano+and+Connor+Babbs+take+their+rightful+position+at+the+front+of+the+crowd+as+new+Seniors.+

Gabby Tello

Luke Pelletier, Camden Castellano and Connor Babbs take their rightful position at the front of the crowd as new Seniors.

Ashton Phelps and Henry Kline, Herald reporters

Walking into LPS Stadium, you struggle to find a parking spot. There are people everywhere, tailgating and enjoying their pre game shenanigans. You finally get your ticket and enter the packed stadium. You search about for an open spot next to your friends. This is when you realize, “These are all underclassmen! What are they doing in my seats?!”

As a senior at Arapahoe High School, Ashton Phelps finds it very annoying that there are underclassmen in the senior section of the stands. “A little reminder now that football season is among us. Freshman at the way top, then sophomores, juniors and then the seniors at the front.”

Fellow student Henry Kline has a simple solution: “Kick them out. They haven’t earned it yet, they should know better.”

Ashton agrees noting that it is just incredibly annoying how this seems to happen every year. She goes on to address the senior boys in the crowd, “Normally during the football games, the senior boys will stand down at the front by the fence, but on Thursday night when halftime came they would not sit down, preventing us from seeing the Toms perform! It was very annoying.”

Henry is daft minded and cannot understand Ashton’s argument. He says “You know you can just stand up too, right?”

It is widely acknowledged and well known that halftime is a time of rest before the beginning of the second half. Ashton said: “We have been standing the whole game! We want to give our legs a break during halftime!”

The following is an excerpt of the ensuing argument: Henry says, “You will stand for the football players but not the Toms?” Ashton was taken aback, “What am I supposed to say to that?”

No matter which side of the debate you lie, one thing is for sure. Someone, either the senior boys, or everyone else, has to change.

While on the topic of football pet-peeves Henry brought up the topic of theming, “One thing I did not understand was the theme of the first game. This is our home opener. I was not a fan of the USA theme. It should have been Arapahoe black and gold!!”

Ashton understood where he was coming from saying, “Rock Canyon has the same colors as us so we wanted to be different. We decided to support the USA by wearing red, white and blue.”

Henry has nothing against the USA but argues, “They are playing in our stadium though, they can take a hike.”

Ashton does not seem bothered by the idea, reminding Henry, “We have a bunch of other cool black and gold themes throughout the season though.”

With or without the black and old gold theme, there is no doubt that the Warrior atmosphere at every game is incredible. “There is always a super cool vibe because everyone gets into the game and goes crazy,” says Ashton. She goes on to add, “Except I wish that the cheers mixed it up a bit and started some new chants.”

Henry agrees with Ashton about having some new chants but also states, “There are many traditional chants and cheers that make Arapahoe football games what they are.” He also adds “As long as the cheers do the backflips when we score!”

Ashton completely agrees with Henry on keeping the traditions by saying, “I also like it when the guys do push ups after we score.” She also adds “The ‘How bout them Warriors’ tradition has got to stay”

Both students agree that ‘How ‘bout them Warriors’ builds a special bond between Arapahoe players and students and is very unique. “Imagine not doing it, I do not think I can. It is just part of what we do at Arapahoe,” says Henry.

Football season is among us, and the team is off to a great start and are looking to keep the momentum going. With the Heritage rivalry game approaching there is a big opportunity for our Warriors to establish that they are the best around.