One of the holy grails of Texas is Friday night lights. Cheers flood the stands with encouragement. The sound of the band dominates the air with their cadences. The student section throws rolls of toilet paper as makeshift streamers. Leading the charge along with the spectators and players, are Stand Leaders

“I think we really help the guys get hyped up, because hearing us cheer them on motivates them,” president, senior Jacob Davis said.

Since its inception, Stand Leaders at sporting events have always been an influential factor at sporting events. Starting last year, 40 spirited Oak students wanted to continue on with the tradition and return it to an active club.

“I wanted to start stand leaders back up because I wanted to have a fun club where we could be free and obnoxious,” Davis said.

With Mrs. Brenda Sims as the current sponsor, she oversees a mostly student led organization.

“They are a really powerful, energetic group of kids,” Sims said. “They have a lot of school spirit and want to make high school athletics fun again.”

Their cheering just may just be contagious with the recent successes of the varsity volleyball and football teams, the games in which the stand leaders are most prominent. Combined, the football teams including junior varsity and varsity are 15-2, across the board. And at home, the varsity volleyball team is 4-3 at home this season.

The Stand Leader’s main task at games is to dress crazy and be loud as well as decorate the student section. Their emphasis is on standing up all game, encouraging the crowd to participate in chants and making eye catching posters.

“Before games we put Klein Oak banners at the top of Klein Memorial we also decorate our megaphones we use,” junior Kristin McFarland said.

With varsity cheerleaders spurring on spirits, band playing and the Stand Leaders encouraging the players and crowd, the atmosphere is definitely a change.

“Everyone is up on their feet and attendance at football and volleyball games is up,” McFarland said. “Seeing everybody sing along to the cadances and having a good time is very rewarding.”

Looking to next year, Mrs. Sims along with junior leadership from this year, want to create a tryout process. Since membership was already established, there were no requirements, but next year it will be more rigorous.

“I would like them see paint the run through signs and help get involved in a bunch of extracurricular stuff,” Mrs. Sims said. “As far as tryouts go, I would just like to see that they have a lot of school spirit and also be good representatives of our campus.”