This year two new clubs have been created to help the North High football team. They are the V-Up Viking Football Booster Club and the Pep Club.

While the Pep Club is a place for students to build school spirit, the V-Up Viking Football Booster Club is a place for parents to become involved. Parents of North High football players came together this August to create this club.

The Booster Club is led by President Daniel Bartels, Vice President Glenn Mitchell, Secretary Moniki Cannon, and Treasurer Jackie Glassman.

“Our sole purpose is to support the football program through our time, talent, and financial support. We run activities and help in any way we can. We just started in August, and we hope the impact grows throughout the years,” said Bartels.

So far, the Booster Club has held team dinners and ordered yard signs for each of the players. They have also become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which allows them to be tax exempt for the club, and they have also opened a checking account for the booster club.

“OPS and North do such a great job of supporting our student athletes and coaches, but there is more needed that falls outside what they can offer. I jumped in to help and try to make a difference in a positive manner,” said Bartels.

While the V-Up Viking Football Booster Club’s only goal is to help out the football team, that is not the case for the Pep Club. The Pep Club’s main focus is to promote and support any school activity, which includes football for the fall quarter. Its positive impact on the football team is shown by the turnout of its student section.

“From our first football game to our last one that we just had at Benson, our student section tripled in size,” said Racheal Anastasia, North High School freshman seminar teacher and Pep Club sponsor.

The club was revived by Anastasia after it had not existed in the school for years. The 10 to 15 currently active students meet every Tuesday for “Poster Parties” where they create posters for upcoming school events. The posters include the time, place, and theme of the upcoming football game.

“Knowing that we have posters, we have a banner, we have people to lead the chants, our students knowing that we have someone to help with that, has made them want to come and be a part of it,” said Anastasia.

Senior class officer of Pep Club, Azriel Carr, 12, is a student section leader at all of the football games as well as in charge of creating the banners that get strung across every game. She leads the chants and is in charge of “keeping the crowd hyped up.”

While Pep Club is known for helping the football team, they have supported the volleyball team as well. They have made posters and increased the number of students who come to watch their games.

Anastasia hopes to also have Pep Club promote more of the arts offered at school and provide support for show choir and band events.

“My goal is also to be able to have more pep rallies before sports begin to let students know what sports are coming, which ones you can support, when the games are, and also not just focus on the athletics department, but our arts department too,” said Anastasia.

Both clubs are showing support for the extracurricular activities at North in their own ways and keeping their school spirit high. So far, both have significantly affected the football team and are going to keep positively impacting the future of the sports and activities at the school.

“Come out, show support, we can’t be a cool school without a cool student section. Show out, be loud, be proud, be a Viking, V-up,” said Carr.