Central students come together to cheer on their teams

Through social media, mass emails and just word-of-mouth, the CT Jungle -- the CT being for Cape Tigers -- gets students hyped up for sporting events. A time-honored tradition, the jungle each year elects a king, a main person to lead chants and cheers through an acoustic megaphone, and a flag runner, who enters with the flag before the kickoff or tipoff.

"Basically, we are a student organization that goes to all the basketball games and football and ... we sit together and have fun," said 18-year-old Derek Nunnery, this year's king.

Next year, 17-year-old Luke Kinder will take over as king, and J.D. Harding, also a 17-year-old junior, will lead the cheers.

"We try to create creative ways and themes and cheers that will get students excited about coming to the games and create a fun atmosphere," Kinder said.

A tradition passed from king to king is an orange and black mannequin leg that likely dates back 30 years.

The Central Jungle gets fired up at a basketball game with Jackson on Feb. 11 at Central High School. (Fred Lynch)

"It's a pretty cool tradition," Nunnery said, adding the leg has a strap attached so it can be carried.

Despite having a core group, the Jungle is loosely structured, principal Mike Cowan said in an email to the Southeast Missourian. Numbers in the group range from 20 to 200, depending on the importance and location of the game, he wrote.

To help keep students informed, the Jungle employs PA announcements, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, Nunnery said. The Twitter account has 500 followers and the Instagram page, which started recently, has 150. Also, since every student received a convertible laptop computer in January as part of the district's 1:1 program, Nunnery said he sends an email to the whole school about upcoming games.

There are also suggestions about wearing all orange or arriving in a rainbow of colors for a visual effect, he said. Twitter is used before and after the games, but not during.

"It's hard to be so involved with [the game] and trying to make tweets at the same time," Nunnery said.

Central High School seniors Aaron Mehner, left, and Ethan Groshong with the Jungle celebrate a Tiger touchdown against Miller Career Academy at the Class 4 quarterfinal football game Nov. 16 in Cape Girardeau. (Fred Lynch)

Nunnery has been involved in the Jungle since his freshman year and said he has missed maybe three basketball and football games during his high school career.

" ... I love sports and just cheering along with my classmates," he said.

He got into a leadership role his junior year and worked his way up to king.

"I'm glad just to keep it going. I gave it to a person who will be responsible enough to keep it going," Nunnery said.

Kinder also has been involved in the group since he was a freshman and hopes to get more students involved.

"You always knew who the king was," and if you saw that student "going crazy, then maybe it's the cool thing to do -- to ... get crazy."

"My goal would be to have the whole Jungle section filled up for every game all the way up to the back and to just have a really big Jungle and then do some really cool cheers like you've seen college teams do -- like represent like Duke's student section or some really cool stuff from Taylor University," Kinder said.

Unfortunately, body paint is against Missouri State High School Activities Association rules.

In describing his vision for leading the cheers, Harding said the objective for this year's leader was to be really loud.

"That was probably one of his main goals. He started all the big chants @ the big games," Harding said.

Getting more fans out to lesser-attended sports such as girls basketball and soccer would be another of Harding's goals. But football and basketball are the big two.

"I'm looking forward to our rivalry games," Harding said. "I'm looking forward to finally being a leader," because it's something he's wanted to do ever since he was a freshman.

Other fanatics

* Jackson High School has the J Crue, in existence since the late 1990s.

A group of three or four seniors lead it, with juniors waiting in the wings to take over. There's usually a group of 30 to 35 students involved, but if the game is at home or a contest nearby, that figure increases, Jackson High School athletic director and assistant principal John Martin said.

J Crue is a student-led organization, but Martin is one of the sponsors. For cheers, J Crue works in conjunction with the cheerleading coach and cheerleaders.

Typically, Martin said, the students come up with themes, which have to be run by Martin, then solidified or tweaked, and deemed appropriate before they are approved. With football, the process is a little slower than with basketball because there are more games in the basketball season, he said.

Martin said it means a lot to the teams to have this built-in fan base.

"Our student athletes very much appreciate our J Crue getting involved in the game and cheering them on and being loud and trying to give us an advantage any way we can, under the guidance of our administration," Martin said. He added that if a chant "goes the wrong way," he tells the students to stop.

* Scott City High School's pep club, a more casual version of the Cape Girardeau and Jackson groups, is called the BRU Crew -- with BRU standing for Big Rowdy Union. Begun around 2000, "It ebbs and flows in size and intensity from year to year and game to game. Sometimes there are 15 students, other times 75," principal Mike Johnson said in an email to the Southeast Missourian.

* Notre Dame Regional High School has its Blue Crew, which sits in the Bulldog section of the bleachers. Moderator and art teacher Becki Essner said about half the school signed up for the group this year -- about 300 students -- but they don't all show up to every game.

"We work really hard with the kids to make sure the spirit is there, but that it's done in a respectful way. We push having a great time and cheering for our team. They do a wonderful job," Essner said. "It's a neat thing for them to come together."

* Stronghold is Saxony Lutheran High School's student section. Social studies teacher Laura Hayden is the student council sponsor. Each year, the student council organizes "Stronghold" T-shirts, face tattoos and pompoms for those who sit in the section.

The loosely structured group is in its 10th year. Hayden said the name comes from Psalm 27:1: "The Lord is the stronghold of my life of whom I should be afraid."

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

1000 S. Silver Springs Road, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

315 S. Missouri, Jackson, Mo.

3000 Main St., Scott City, Mo.

265 Notre Dame Drive, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

2004 Saxony Drive, Jackson, Mo.