Every school has them… traditions! The easy part is starting them, but you as spirit-leaders must be willing to put the effort in to keep them around. Many schools have started and maintained traditions for several years. Here are some examples of great school traditions from real schools!
University of Delaware
Fightin’ Blue Hens!
Newark, Delaware
Tradition: Ringing the Victory Bell after each score. The bell has a long and proud history at the U of D for well over 100 years. This fall marks the 50th year that the Victory Bell has been who rung after a score in Delaware Stadium!
St. Pius
Lancers
Festus, Missouri
Tradition: During basketball season, a group of boys that don’t play basketball go to the varsity games and all wear plain white t-shirts that say “X-factor” really big in black ink. Every time one of our players makes a shot, one of them will count to 3 and they all yell “X” and make an “x” with their arms.
Vardaman High School
“Rowdy” Rams
Vardaman, Mississippi
Tradition: Every touchdown, we chant “Way to go Rams, Way to go!” It usually pumps up the cheer hopefuls, football moms, and everyone else in the stands!
Highland High School
Rebels
Highland, Arkansas
Tradition: Before every game, we play the national anthem, then we let the other school play their alma matter. When they’re finished, we play our alma matter and while we do, we point to the flags. After it’s over, we clap five times really fast, then we all do two or three cheers, the football team runs through the “run-through sign”, and we all run back to the stands!
Richard King High School
Mustangs
Corpus Christi, Texas
Tradition: Before the kickoff and during the kickoff, we make horseshoes with our hands (thumb and pinkie fingers up while the other 3 are rolled down) and we yell, “Go, Go, Go KING Go” over and over until the kickoff is over. While we are yelling, our arms are in a touchdown, and we bend them back and up on each word. We’ll put top girls into elevators/extensions/libs/chairs during this time and they do the motions with their arms and hands.
Calallen High School
Wildcats
Corpus Christi, Texas
Tradition: During the playoffs, the members of the Varsity cheerleading squad go to the end zone after every touchdown and line up. We start at one end of the line, and a girl does a standing back for each point scored. The first touchdown is easy. We line up seven girls and each does one standing back as the crowd counts. As more points are scored, we add more girls, as we do standing backs for the total amount of points on the board at that time! For example, if we have just scored our third touchdown, we do 21 standing backs as the crowd counts out each one! The girls get tired, but they (and the crowd) love it!
The University of Arkansas
The Razorbacks
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Tradition: Before each pep rally, game, appearance, or even a press conference for a new member of our athletic department, we call the hogs. The male captain or the mic man will say, “Alright all you Razorback fans, let’s stand up and call those Hogs! At a football game, the crowd of 72,000+ will stand and join in with the spirit groups with “Wooo Pig Sooie” three times. On the third time you say “Wooo Pig Sooie, Razorbacks.” Then our band will kick in with the fight song and the entire crowd joins in and sings all the words. It is really a fun and exciting atmosphere to be a part of.
Lake Zurich High School
Bears
Lake Zurich, Illinois
Tradition: We do a pre-game performance before basketball and football games. The cheerleaders and poms perform a dance to “Loyalty” (our school song) that was choreographed before we were born!
Florida State University
Seminoles
Tallahassee, Florida
Tradition: In the early 80s, the Florida State University band, the Marching Chiefs, began the now-famous arm motion while singing the war chant. This chopping motion, a repetitious bend at the elbow of the right hand, became known as the “tomahawk chop,” to symbolize a tomahawk swinging down. The war chant and tomahawk chop are a part of every game of every sport at our school and all pep rallies, and it can really wear your arm out!
Union High School
Redskins
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tradition: Our school has a 20ft. smoking tee-pee that they put up in the end zone prior to every football game. The cheerleaders hold hands while standing in place down the 20 yard line. As the team runs through the tee-pee, the cheerleaders lead them down the field. Once they reach the 50 yard line, the cheerleaders let go of hands and finish by tumbling down to the other end zone.
Winamac High School
Warriors
Winamac, Indiana
Tradition: After every home game that we win during football, the players come over to the crowd and sing our school song, and the cheerleaders sing along with them. Then the football players go over and ring the victory bell in memory of our head football coach’s son who died last year in a car accident.
Stark County High School
Rebels
Wyoming, Illinois
Tradition: During football season, the cheerleaders do a kickline every time we get a touchdown. The first girl kicks, and it continues down the line. We do a kick for every point.
Richmond Christian
Warriors
Richmond, Virginia
Tradition: We started a new tradition at our basketball games this year. When someone is going for a free throw, everyone puts their hands up in a high “V”. If they make it, we bring our hands down really fast and say “Woosh RCS”. We really got a lot of crowd involvement from it this year, and the basketball players love it!
West Aurora High School
Blackhawks
Aurora, Illinois
Tradition: During football and basketball games, all the spirit squads at our school (the cheerleaders and poms) line up around the entire track or gym while the guys are warming up and perform short dance sequences together. We even have dance moves choreographed to our school fight song. It really gets the crowd pumped up before the games!
Arcola High School
Purple Riders
Arcola, Illinois
Tradition: Our school motto is “Winning is our tradition!” As the team takes the field, the four co-captains hold hands as if holding back the rest of the team, and then they all take off at a dead sprint under the goal post through a tunnel made by the band, cheerleaders, and fans. The fans all have big bags filled with purple, white, and gold balloons that they let out into the sky as the team breaks through the hand-painted run-through that boasts a slogan like “Wallop the Warriors.” When our team plays our rival, the Tuscola Warriors, the crowd takes it up a notch and includes fireworks in the pre-game ceremonies. After this and other traditions like the school fight song and starting line routines, the boys all hold their helmets in the air as the team prepares to kick off. The cheerleaders still use the same dance in the school song that they have used for over 25 years. It may be a little out dated but as we say here in Arcola, ‘It’s tradition!’ The fans love it when the cheerleaders come up to the stands to perform crowd cheers and throw mini footballs and poms. Other traditions we have include the homecoming parade that ends downtown in the middle of Main Street with a city wide pep rally. The cheerleaders also decorate the entire hallways from top to bottom with school colors and long hand-painted banners! They also decorate the players’ lockers and bring them treats on game days! Many books and newspaper articles have even been written on Arcola football and the traditions we continue every year. Our football seasons are truly the highlight of the year and what makes it so fun are the traditions we have and how supportive the entire town is of them! We love it!
West Stokes High School
Wildcats
King, North Carolina
Tradition: Since our school opened three years ago, we had to make up our own new unique traditions like these: After our team scores a touchdown, we do pushups for the number of points on the score board. When our team scores, makes a good play, or intercepts the ball the band plays the fight song while we do our fight dance. We have a class cheer that involves each class (freshmen-seniors). We throw out candy footballs and peanuts (Go Nuts for the Cats!) during low or boring parts of the game to get the crowd excited. We put paw prints on our faces, and on a special night each season we have any little girls come cheer with us during the 3rd quarter during football season. In basketball, when they announce the teams or starting lineup we get in a big circle or semi-circle and do a back handspring or jump when they call out each player’s name.
Water Valley High School
Blue Devils
Water Valley, Mississippi
Tradition: One of our traditions for football season is that for EVERY kickoff, all three of our stunt groups do the same stunt until the ball is kicked. Whether it is extensions, liberties, or heel stretches, the fans start to cheer and get ready for the ball to be kicked off. It is a fun way to let the football players know, even if we are losing, that we are still behind them 100%.
For as long as I can remember, immediately after each extra point or field goal made in a high school game, a member of the booster club has shot off a small cannon at Water Valley home football games. In recent years, the cheerleaders have begun to time basket tosses to the cannon fire - a real crowd pleaser!
Many schools use hand signals as traditions. Here are some examples of hand signs that many cheerleaders use with their fans to help show school spirit during a game, pep rally, etc. Many times these are used as a traditional sign during a kick off, fight song, or when the team runs onto the field or court.
Bulldogs, curl your pinkie and index fingers to make those loveable ears
This one is popular with Cowboys, Raiders and other mascots whose characters traditionally use pistols.
“C” is for Central - or any other school name starting with a “C”.
Three fingers can be used for the talons of birds of prey like Eagles, Hawks, and Falcons.
Birds can also use both hands to make wings.
Looking for a “W”? Cross your middle fingers together (or just put them beside each other) for any “West ______ High School”!
The University of Texas isn’t the only school with Longhorns as their mascot. Show your horns with this hand sign!
An increasingly popular mascot, Wolves can hold up the wolf pack sign and howl.
The open “paw” or “claw” can be used for many animal mascots including Lions, Tigers, and Bears!
This sign can be an “L” for teams like “Lewisville” or “Loyola”.
Two fingers in the air can stand for the ears of Mustangs, Ponies or Stallions!
When all else fails, you can always go with the standard “Number One!”
