In Response to “Cheer up” from the Volume XVII Issue 2 on Oct. 1, 2008:
The Fanatics have the utmost respect for Harvard-Westlake Spirit: We love your cheers. We go wild for your halftime dances. Your routines made this yearâs fall Spirit Assembly worthwhile. Unfortunately, we were somewhat saddened by the “Cheer up” article in Octoberâs edition of The Chronicle.
We have never viewed ourselves as competing with H-W Spirit for the attention of the fans, and we are disappointed that this is how you perceive our interactions. In our opinion, both the Fanatics and H-W spirit are on the same side. We see no reason behind having to determine which organization should act as the “foundation” for school spirit. We can both serve this purpose together.
Thus far, H-W Spirit has concentrated on dances or long cheers such as “Change it, rearrange it, get that ball back,” while the Fanatics have specialized in short chants such as “Defense! (clap-clap).” These are two distinctly separate genres of cheering. Whenever H-W Spirit starts a cheer, we do our absolute best to join in and make our fellow Fanatics do the same.
We regret that occasionally our spontaneous chants interfere with your cheers, but in sports this is inevitable. We are not attempting to “shut [you] out.” Just remember that the Fanatics have a duty too. Our job is to rile up the crowd and make every fan crave a Wolverine victory as much as the athletes themselves. The Fanatics know just as well as you that we can change the score without being
on the field.
Regarding “Wolverines in the Front,” we never try to overpower any H-W Spirit cheer with it. But everyone loves “Wolverines in the Front,” and we have to give the people what they want.
We do not support H-W spirit “for the most part.” We support you 100 percent, and we cannot imagine what the games would be like without you. So lets put all of this behind us. We will truly make an effort not to interfere with your cheering, but understand that we too have goals of our own to accomplish. At least we can both agree on one thing:
GO WOLVERINES!
â
The Harvard-Westlake Fanatics
