The student body has voted and the results are in: David Lu, Fumi Agboola, Ryan McNulty, Matt Stober, Saaj Patel, and Mitchell Drysdale have been voted our new Catamount Chaos leaders for this school year. This year is the first time the leaders have been elected by the student body rather than chosen by the leader him/herself. Our 2013-2014 Chaos leader, Stephen Howard, had a few comments on the program. Although he has his doubts about the election process, Howard says, “…I have faith in Ryan and his team to pull through and make this year’s student section one to remember.” With the new principal, the new election process, and the new title “Captain Catamount,” this could be the start of a new era at Panther Creek.

Catamount Chaos is one of the most iconic parts of Panther Creek High School. Since the start of The Viking in 2010, we’ve had one of the best student sections in the state. One of our most prominent vikings is Michael Marion, who was the leader when High School OT recognized us as the best student section in the county, and went on to lead the student section at Duke University. This year we will see the transition from “The Viking” to “Captain Catamount,” and a change from the viking helmet to a blue wig. The blue-haired leader this year is Ryan McNulty, when asked why it’s important to him to be in Chaos and he said, “Being able to make everyone excited on a Friday night makes me happy.” Nonetheless, the crowd does the famous roller coaster at halftime. Another way Chaos hypes up the crowd is through the original cheers we have. One of the leaders, Matt Stober, said his personal favorite is “ooh-wa-ga-wa cats got the power.” Students start to memorize the cheers and they become a staple at every game.

When Mitchell Drysdale, another Chaos leader for this year, was asked how this year will compare to previous years, he said that they are currently doing the best they can and they love the full crowd. He adds, although it will be hard to beat the other years, they will rise up to the challenge. Saaj Patel says he hopes to get more participation from the underclassmen because they have been quieter in the previous years.

Not only is it the job of Captain Catamount and the other leaders to just lead cheers for the crowd, but also they must have the attitude and energy. Fumi Agboola was asked how she feels about being chosen as one of the leaders and she responded with “I feel great. It’s an honor because I get to represent the whole school and get them excited for games and have school spirit, which is a lot of fun.” We also asked David Lu about what he, personally, thinks he can bring to the chaos team, Lu said “I’m hoping to bring a lot of energy to the team and I really want to cheer the crowd on. I’m pretty energetic, so I want to spread that energy to everyone. I think as a team, we’ve got good synergy.”

The leaders seem very promising so let’s get ready for a great year with this years Catamount Chaos!