Black and gold! Yell it, black and gold!” Once a

week during the fall sports season, Inglemoor

High School’s student body comes together

at night and attends football games to support

and cheer for the varsity team. Senior ASB President

Maya Oleynikova said that she thinks football and

school culture greatly overlap in defining Inglemoor.

“A lot of our school culture manifests itself

at those football games,” Oleynikova said. “It’s

a really great showcase of our school spirit.”

73% of students at Inglemoor said, in a survey con-

ducted by Nordic News, that they feel football attracts

the most attention and garners the most attendance

at games. Junior Kolby Solomon, varsity quarter-

back, said everybody he knows attends the games.

“Football is a sport that is so entertaining to watch.

It brings people together and it releases adrenaline,”

he said. “Everybody gets super hyped around it.”

Principal Adam Desautels said foot-

ball games help to unify students out-

side of school by creating strong bonds.

“I think it’s really difficult to build a commu-

nity where everybody feels like they’re one,” De-

sautels said. “[Football] puts out a product that

people come out and support, [and] I think that the

event is something that does help our school cul-

ture because students from all different groups come

out, and they work towards one common goal.”

Junior and cheerleader Lena Shanafelt

said that she wishes the cheer team

could perform at more sporting events.

“I do think it is partly one of those things where

we kind of favor the football team because it is some-

thing that’s exciting for us,” Shanafelt said. “I per-

sonally would rather be supporting more teams, but a

lot of times we just can’t fit them into our schedule.”

An important part of the football scene is the student

section. One group of hardcore football fans—the As-

sociated Student Hype (ASH) — attends every game.

Senior ASH member Peter Hansen said that

the sense of the community he feels from at-

tending the games is what appeals most to him.

“ASH isn’t about being the top of the stu-

dents or the leader,” Hansen said. “It’s about

having that band of people come togeth-

er and [building] a brotherhood behind that.”

Inglemoor football coach Steve Hannan said that

he agrees that football games help shape Inglemoor.

“You go [to games] because you get to re-

ally enjoy and scream and be a part of the com-

munity,” Hannan said. “Your football program

a lot of the time will help generate excitement

about the school and the sports that are going on at

the school, which a lot times identifies a school.”

Inglemoor Athletic Director Lance Gatter summa-

rized the strength of football’s support at the school.

“Even when our teams weren’t having success, you

[could] look at the student body in the stands and [see]

the support that they were giving to football, Gatter

said. “Maybe it is just Inglemoor culture [to] go to

football games. We get dressed up and we get loud.”