After going through the fall sports season and two and a half weeks of the winter season, students are pushing back against game-day cheering guidelines they say limit their ability to show school spirit. Meanwhile, administrators are standing firm on the importance of maintaining sportsmanship during athletic events.

On Dec. 11 school administration sent out an email outlining guidelines for cheering at Griffin sporting events. It highlighted their expectations regarding sportsmanship, rules to follow while on school property including behavior and items that are allowed in, as well as consequences that could apply if those expectations are not met.
“We’re going to redirect every single time that we hear things that don’t fit within the mold.” Athletic Director Ryan Garder said. “The one rule is that we as administrators look for, is whether are we cheering on our team, or are we trying to taunt the other team, and those are two very different things.”
Key points that were outlined were: students must only cheer for the Griffins and chants and taunts aimed toward another team will not be tolerated, and be passionate and loud.
“We’re here to cheer for our team, not cheer against the other team,” Garder said. “We are a brand new building with a reputation that is still being developed, and we have to be super intentional about each and everything we do.”
However, the restrictions placed on the student section have had mixed reactions from students as some, like junior Kate Gudenrath, feel the guidelines limit the student section’s full potential.
“We are missing out on the “high school” experience, high school isn’t something we get to come back to,” she said. “I honestly think that if we had more freedom in student sections we would have a more positive turnout at games.”
Sophomore Layton McLaughlin feels similarly.
“I feel like the rules are too strict for the fun football games,” McLaughlin said. I feel like the administration gets way too involved and games need to be more relaxed.”

One particular game that stood out as contradictory or unfair to several students was the Oct. 25, football game against Gretna High. They felt that while both schools are Gretna Public Schools, they had different expectations to follow when it came to their student sections.
“They [Gretna High] had a big sign and were cheering and yelling offensive things at our team and student section,” sophomore Sophia Lindsey said. “Then, when we do a cheer that is considered ‘offensive,’ we get yelled at.”
Cheerleader, junior Remi Lefeber also feels the rules placed on the student section and cheerleaders are not equal between the sister schools.
“Our banner that the cheerleaders made was gonna say, ‘Lights out Gretna,’ or ‘Lights Out Dragons’ or something like that, and our administrators told us we couldn’t put that on our poster, but their poster was allowed to say, ‘You think you can beat us? Now, that’s Fantasy football,’” she said. “We weren’t allowed to do anything like that. Gretna High is so much more chill than here, and, yes, Gretna as a school district has a lot of rules and regulations, but at the same time, if you can put that on a poster but we can’t put, ‘Lights Out Dragons,’ like, are you joking?”
Despite the frustrations of students regarding the Gretna football game, the East administration feels that competitive banter between schools, regardless of who the Griffins are playing, can degrade a school’s sportsmanship and reputation.
“We’re not cheering for the demolishing, or the death, or the whatever, of any other team,” Garder said. “That is not what sportsmanship about is about.”
Sportsmanship isn’t just a goal of administrators at the school. The Nebraska Coaches Association, Nebraska State Athletic Administrators Association, and Nebraska School Activities Association present one award school per class that makes the State Championships in the following sports: volleyball, boys and girls basketball and boys and girls soccer. The Sportsmanship Award is meant to recognize member schools which demonstrate a school-wide commitment to promoting good sportsmanship during the preceding school year.
In the 2024 Girls Basketball State Championships, in which the Griffins made it to the semi-finals, the Griffins were not recognized with the Sportsmanship Award and one reason could be that the student section turned their back when Skutt Catholic came out onto the court.
Aside from that particular instance, Garder says that the student section has done a good job at maintaining good sportsmanship overall.
“I’ve been disappointed probably only twice about our student section,” he said. “I think we’ve done a really, really nice job. And both times, those times that I’ve been disappointed, and that I have would say that I have yelled is because we were literally booing as another team ran out, and that is beyond–beyond the scope of anything in the realm of acceptable.”
Garder recognizes the good that the student section has done and wants to reinforce positive interactions with other teams and student sections and limit activity that could shed a negative light on the Griffin student section.
“We’ve got high participation and high amounts of kids showing up to things,” Garder said. “That’s great. But no, I’m not going to allow students to negatively attack referees the other team, yeah, that’s just that’s not what we that’s not cheering, that at the end of the day, is not cheering and supporting our team. That’s taunting, that’s unsportsmanlike.”
While students and staff don’t always see eye to eye on the expectations of the student section, students and staff still share a common goal.
“Student sections should be crazy, obnoxious and over the top,” sophomore Ella Gernetzke said. “It just shows their school pride and how much they care about the school.”
Even the administration wants a loud, high-energy student section that supports their team as much as possible.
“I want our student section to be very loud and very rowdy and large because we’re all here to support our friends and our classmates,” Garder said.
They may have to get creative to stay within the expectations, but it is something administration feels strongly that the student section can achieve.
“I would push back on any student who believes that we can’t cheer because that’s not true,” Garder said.
The next opportunity to prove this by showing up and showing out in the student section will be on Saturday as the girls basketball team hosts the Girls Varsity EMC Tournament and takes on Blair at noon. Then the boys will take on the Wolves at Elkhorn North in the Boys Varsity EMC Tournament at 1:30 p.m.