By Daryn ’22
Harvard-Westlake may seem like a small school from the outside with only ~900 students at the upper school, but our school pride is anything but small. The best showing of this is our enormous HW Fanatics program! If you’re ever on a sports team, the fanatics squad will come out and support your games!
To join the fanatics, all you have to do is come to some sports games! However, there are head fanatics. They are comprised of couple junior and seniors that are elected through the student body at the beginning of the year. There are speeches held to help candidates campaign. The head fanatics have a large responsibility to attend as many of the sports games as possible and keep the crowd hyped.
My experience as a fanatic has been exhilarating. Recently, our boys basketball team played our rivals, Sierra Canyon in the CIF Open division semi finals. The tickets to the game sold out in less than 10 minutes and the fanatics showed up to an away game. With over 100 fanatics, the crowd roared throughout the entire game as Harvard-Westlake came out on top 63-60. This was an incredibly spectacular game because it earned our team a spot in the CIF Open Division Championship game and a shot at the State Playoffs.
With my lacrosse season in full swing, I have also witnessed a lot of fanatics coming to my games and it is incredibly exciting. Knowing that your peers care about your sports game and are rooting for you makes playing sports even more fulfilling. Often times, they will also make posters for the team to hold up in the stands during the games!
Being a fanatic isn’t as big of a commitment as it may seem. Since there are so many fanatics, they often take turns going to different games. There are no requirements except to root for Harvard-Westlake when you’re at a game! I could not be more proud to be a Harvard-Westlake fanatic because of the amazing athletics program that we get to represent! If you ever attend an HW sports game, you will surely notice the large group of students dressed in red or black cheering on the team.
