Video shows why this Columbus school won state award for best spirit in student section
No school in the state has better spirit than this one in Muscogee County, according to the Georgia High School Association.
Northside High School is one of two winners of the GHSA Student Section Spirit Challenge, finishing first in Class A-5A. The Class 6A-7A winner is Newnan.
The GHSA Student Athlete Advisory Council established the contest to promote good sportsmanship while having fun in the crowd at interscholastic sporting events.
Eleven schools submitted videos. and a panel of seven judges narrowed the field to the top five. The council met via Zoom to determine the winners of the two classifications, according to the GHSA’s website.
The selection criteria indicates the council looked for videos that show “the entire student body through pep rallies, games of multiple sports and included many groups like band, dance teams, etc.”
The winners received a banner and trophy.
Northside’s marketing and communications class, taught by Libby Clay, produced the school’s spirit video. She praised senior Huda Saydedzada and Kannon Wells for their leadership in the project among the approximately 20 students involved.
“They show up to everything that we have, just about, and they show up with a good attitude,” Clay told the Ledger-Enquirer. “They’re the ideal students we have at this school.”
Huda, 18, often worked at home to edit the video on her laptop.
“All the hard work we put into it paid off,” Huda said. “… It started off as just wanting to get more students to come out to the games and support the team. It turned into every week, everybody was like, ‘OK, let’s do something new. Let’s have more fun with it.’ “
Kannon, 17, helped organize the crowds at the football games for the video shoots to go smoothly. She also shot some of the video as well.
“It can get a little crazy because everyone is just so excited at the games,” she said. “So it takes a lot to get everything together. … Seeing how much work we put in to make the video and get everything together, it really speaks a lot for our students because it just shows how much we care about this school and how much we really do love Northside.”
Athletic Director Morgan Ingram explained the impact of that spirit.
“When our players see that kind of support from the students, it improves their play, it improves their motivation, it improves their desire to want to show their fellow students how much work they’ve put into it,” Ingram said.
School spirit also boosts the feel-good atmosphere beyond sports, Ingram noted.
“It shows that the students appreciate what’s going on and they want to be part of it, even if they’re not directly related to that sport,” he said. “They want to support their fellow students. It’s not just athletes in the student section. There are kids from all over the school.”
Accompanied by thumping music and lyrics from the Wolves song “My Time,” the video has clips from football and softball games, as well as pep rallies, and shows fans, cheerleaders, band members flag wavers and the Patriot mascot. The 2-minute and 29-second video is posted on YouTube, so it could help market the school to prospective students.
“It’s all about our brand at Northside,” Clay said. “It’s our job to go out and share that brand because Northside, we believe, is the best school in the county.”
Clay listed the following people and organizations in the credits for the video:
- Coach Jon Harrelson, Northside OC
- OurSide Productions
- Melzar Productions (Northside alum Kelvin Melzar)
- Tank U Productions (Northside alum James Smith)
- Skii Productions, TJ Taylor
- CGY Sports
- WRBL, WTVM
- Huda Sayedzada
- Garrett Todd
- Ava Hensley
- Victoria Trieu
- Kennedy Coleman
- Libby Van Bibber
- Kannon Wells
Song — My Time, Wolves
