Athletics and school spirit go beyond touchdowns and Friday Night Lights (FNL). Athletic leadership at Rocklin High School (RHS) works not only to highlight the popular sports and bring attention to those athletes, but also the less popular athletic programs, incorporating ways to get students excited and involved. RHS has been respected by many schools in the area for its school spirit and athletic events which are largely credited to the athletic leadership program. From planning the sports game themes to getting the Rocklin community involved in RHS sporting events, its members strive to foster an electrifying and positive environment for our hundreds of athletes and spectators.
One of our amazing storm leaders, senior Dylan Nusz, has been a part of athletic leadership for two years.
“Athletics is a really big thing for me, so I thought it would be a great way to be involved with the campus and also still sticking to athletics,” he said.
Our storm leaders are a big part of the class and work hard to bring energy and support to the games. During the birth of the athletic leadership program, they were basically TAs who helped out former athletic director Ryan Spears with planning events. Athletic leadership and PE teacher Jeff Harter said, “Those guys would help out, have conversations, have time to set up and plan events, and then we’ve kinda just taken that to a whole new level.”
The athletic leadership class not only focuses on highlighting our athletes and sports events but also on getting students involved in events. Part of their job is getting the younger elementary school kids excited to be a part of RHS one day. They work with the feeder elementary schools like Breen and Twin Oaks to promote RHS pride by having cheerleaders and football players visit them on game day Fridays to get them excited to come out to our events. In addition, they visit them to talk about what high school is like and how they can make a positive impact in their school right now.
Along with promoting our campus, they also celebrate our students and athletes. Athletic leadership does athlete of the week as well as fan of the week, which is an attempt to get students to dress out in game themes and cheer loudly to raise the hype of the games. Mr. Harter said they are “trying to incorporate celebrating our students who are coming out to games and cheering loudly and supporting our athletes that are out there on the field or the court or in the pool, wherever it may be.” Their Instagram and TikTok: @rocklinstorm also works to prompt all things sports and events to get as much school and community attendance as they can.
Due to the pandemic, the year got cut short and then the class got broken up into two different classes, which caused a disruption. “We weren’t always on the same page,” Nusz said, which made it difficult for the classes to work together. Now that they are in one period again, he said, “This year it’s really nice because it feels like a lot of unity, and makes the class feel really close. Which makes it a lot more fun and easier to get stuff done.”
Athletic leadership is a pretty new way to get involved in the campus, yet it has already grown so much, and you can see and feel the impact they are making. There’s a lot more work than students really see being put into this class to make RHS feel like RHS.
