Section F of Moody erupted with nearly 300 raucous cheers and enthusiastic antics on Friday at 11 p.m.
Yell Night, organized by Wildcat Reign, prepared the student section for the football game on Saturday evening. The student section leaders instructed the students on chants and cheers to be used at specific times during the game.
Bryan Maier and Trey Jackson, leaders of Wildcat Reign, said they plan to do Yell Night before each home football game to rouse the student body.
“Students can adjust Yell Night into whatever they want it to be, this is just a skeleton,” said Jackson, sophomore graphic design major from North Richland Hills.
They took the Texas A&M Midnight Yell model and made it their own, said Maier, sophomore mathematics teaching major from St. Louis.
The Wildcat Reign leadership created a list of cheers to be used at every game. The list included Highways and Byways, the alma mater, the fight song, I Believe That We Will Win, and the classic chant from Remember the Titans.
“I’m most excited to start new traditions, to get everybody hyped about the games, and to have a strong-spirited student section,” said Grayson Dampier, freshman student section leader. “We are a Division I school and we need a Division I crowd.”
Maier and Jackson sharply executed Yell Night by combining the trademark freshman excitement with the connections and savviness of upperclassmen. This mix was on display Saturday night at the football game, where Jackson and Morgan Knight, freshman kinesiology major from Longview, led the student section in continuous cheers through the entire game.
“God blessed me with a big voice and a lot of energy, so I try to use it in every way I can,” Knight said. “I’m just going to try to get everyone fired up.”
“The game was a lot of fun,” Jackson said. “The students played a big role in the last few minutes of the game with the blocked field goal and the final drive. The louder we are, the better our Wildcats play.”