Cheers and chants are sung from the audience as players look around to see their peers motivating them as the crowd gets louder. For the Huskies, this is The Pound, BVNW’s student section.

Junior Joe Pleasant, who is in his third year playing varsity basketball for Northwest, said he gets excited by hearing his fellow students cheering and screaming when he’s on the court.

“[It] add[s] a lot more excitement and overall can help some people play better,” Pleasant said. “It’s great to play in front of The Pound.”

Senior Kelsey Salter said the responsibility to make The Pound as wild as possible falls upon the seniors.

“The seniors always try to sing real loud and try to make it…just so the school seems louder,” Salter said.

For Pleasant, he said he has noticed a difference in attitudes among the grade levels during the games.

“I’d say probably the older classes, they kind of have more pride and spirit toward the school and any of the sports,” Pleasant said. “They probably show more energy during the games.”

Noticing a difference with the seniors this year, senior Chase Domurat said he thinks they have not gotten The Pound as riled up as in previous years.

“In the past I think we’ve always had the best student section in the EKL, but I feel like this year and last year hasn’t been as exciting as it was,” Domurat said. “The seniors, when I was a freshman and sophomore, were just crazy, and everyone screamed, and they really got everybody going. And it hasn’t been like that so far, at least with fall sports.”

Despite the differing views on how much of a rivalry exists among classes, all four students agreed there is a rivalry among Northwest and the other schools. According to all four, BVNW’s biggest rivalry is with Blue Valley North.

In fact, Johnson said his favorite game throughout high school was the home basketball game against North last year in which the Huskies took home the victory.

“[My favorite memory was the] North game last year, when we beat them at home and we all stormed the court,” Johnson said.

According to Salter, the games against North are some of her favorites because of the atmosphere created by the crowd.

“Whenever we play North I always think it’s the loudest and it’s the most competitive,” Salter said.

To her, the rivalries among all schools makes more people want to go to the games to support their own team.

“I think that’s part of the reason we want so many people there,” Salter said. “I know they try to use our Twitter to get people there just to make it seem like we show up. I know there’s a huge tradition at our school, so [the students] are trying to live up to it.”

Domurat said the rivalries among the schools make the games more enjoyable.

“I think it makes it a lot more fun,” Domurat said. “It makes it so much fun to be there. I think it gets all the players really, a lot more into it.”

For Johnson, the rivalries bring out the competitive side that The Pound has, especially when playing basketball.

“I think we’re more energetic than other schools, especially in basketball because that’s when we know we can be cocky,” Johnson said. “We get really cocky during basketball season.”