The Cave: A travelling cheer squad

In spectator sports, the people who help cheer their beloved teams to victory are the sixth man on the court, the twelfth man on the field, the tenth man on the diamond. This is the essence of the Cave, the Albany High School student cheering squad.

The Cave was co-founded last year by current seniors Kyle Shipley and Robb Silverstein, and attended almost every sporting event at Albany High School. This year they planned to take the organization a step further by purchasing thunder sticks to bring to the games. Sadly, this plan was condemned by the administration because of NCS rules that do not allow spectators to bring artificial noisemakers to the games.

The school also adopted the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) “Pursuing Victory With Honor” policy that instructs fans to “offer positive reinforcement” and not taunt the opposing teams. These rules were put in place at our school in addition to the regulations enforced by the referees at all games.

Throughout sports, starting from little League all the way through professional sports, cheering fans are an integral part of tradition. From the time we were in middle school, we heard chants like “Swing batter batter batter batter!” and “We want a pitcher, not a belly-itcher!”

Since the Gladiator era, fans have been yelling until their voices became hoarse while the warriors battled to the death. So why are we at Albany High School not allowed to participate in these traditions?

These new codes of conduct are taking away from the fun of the game and the traditions of athletics. The home fans are expected to provide an advantage for the home team by making noise during the critical moments of the game and by enforcing these new rules and regulations, our school is infringing upon our abilities as fans to impact the outcome of game.
Before the start of the 2007-2008 volleyball season, Silverstein admitted that some of last year’s Cave behavior was way over the top, and has been working on creating a more supportive atmosphere for Albany squads, instead of only trying to put down opposing players.

Negotiations will continue with Ms. Wanlin about these new procedures. However, there is safety in numbers. There are over seventy people currently in the 2007-2008 Cave, and if everyone show up to the games it will be easy to maintain a high noise level throughout the contest, thus making it impossible for the school to tell us how to “correctly” cheer.

Or maybe we will be expected to sit quietly in the stand with our legs crossed and golf clap when a player makes a shot.

5 Responses

1. 9:47 PM on September 22nd, 2007spencer:

   nice article, the cave go bruh

2. 9:07 AM on September 24th, 2007caver:

   DA CAVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

3. 11:37 AM on September 25th, 2007ME:

   PUSHHHH IT

4. 9:21 PM on September 27th, 2007cave at st. mary's says::

   SCORE BOARD!

5. 11:32 AM on October 5th, 2007all about da cave:

   da cavvvvvve
   yee

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