As you walk into the gymnasium, you hear the roar of the home crowd sweep the entire room, and everyone gets on their feet. You see your student section erupting with excitement. All of this passion and school spirit is orchestrated by the student group called the “Spartan Crazies”.

The Spartan Crazies are right back to it this school year with attendance at an assortment of football and volleyball games. They are undoubtedly the life of the party and get everyone hyped for sporting events. It’s quite an experience to see them in action – there is no such thing as sitting down in the stands when you are with the Crazies. Everyone is into the game: stomping, cheering, chanting and making the school spirit heard to the opposing fans. The Crazies do everything from cheer for our own team to starting all the chants toward the other team. This often turns into a friendly rivalry between each team’s student sections.  By leading everyone with fun chants that never get old, the Crazies keep the fans involved and let the other team know they mean business.

This group doesn’t just happen on its own – they are led by the Crowd Captains. The captains are responsible for bringing the hype and enthusiasm for the Spartan Crazies to feed off of during the game. 

Senior Patricio Valdez is one of the Crowd Captains and gives some insight about what it is like to be a part of the rambunctious group.

‘‘I’d say the most hype sport here is basketball,” Valdez said. “Our teams have proven to be really good, they’re young, and it’s really just a hype sport in general.” 

Although the Spartan Crazies do not play on the field or court, they still have competition – student sections from other schools are also passionate about their teams. 

“I would definitely say Cinco [brings the biggest crowd],” Valdez said. “They have to be number one, but Tompkins is a very close second since they are our other rivals.” 

The Crowd Captain’s job is to get the entire student section hyped up and to show the other team that not only are the athletes ready, but the school is ready to back them up in whatever they do. Captains rely on students for support, and without them, it wouldn’t be the same.

“We just post about the games a lot and we have trust in the students in the section to get the job done behind us,” Valdez said.

A school has many different ways it can make itself known to the world. Academics is one many would think of initially, but the most interesting to many is the sports teams. Sports has the ability to unite large groups of people with the common goal of winning and being the best, which is what makes the job of the Spartan Crazies so important. The Crazies must unite the crowd in cheering on our Spartans, and they also like to get into the opposing team’s head and give our teams the home advantage. The Crowd Captains have done a really good job not only this year but in the past years of doing just that. Every game, no matter the sport, the captains are able to get the rest of the Crazies on their feet, cheering and rooting for a Spartan victory.