Elle Krikelis is a journalism student at ASU's Cronkite School of Journalism and is assigned to cover Mountain View High School for AZPreps365.com

MESA — The Toros boys football team has had a well-fought season with a record of 6-4 in the regular season. Part of the reason this team has been so successful, especially during home games, is the support of Mountain View’s extremely active student section.

Red and Blue Crew, as they call it, has led the entire student section at football home games, most notably the last two years, crafting fun themes, chants, and encouraging almost every student at Mountain View to show off their school spirit.

“We are leaders on campus, but we also help with the backgrounds of sports events or any other event happening,” junior Megan Boehmer said.

What makes the Red and Blue Crew so different is that they are not just a club. This is the first year the crew has become so big that they have turned it into a class.

According to senior Amanda Carillo, this “leadership class” is simply a class where juniors and seniors, mostly Red and Blue Crew members, propose ideas to promote school spirit and involvement around the school.

“We make sure as a school that we, not to be corny, but unite together,” Boehmer said. “During football games, we all want the student section to be super fun, so we’re also there to make school spirit.”

The Red and Blue Crew has been focusing on football and beach volleyball games this fall season, but they will continue to work closely with soccer, basketball, and almost every other sport that Mountain View offers. 

Their job during these games is to come up with new ideas that can bring up the energy at all sporting events. Boehmer says that this includes creating chants for specific plays, making posters for cheerleaders to hold up, throwing t-shirts into the stands after a touchdown, and even painting themselves their school colors.

“We stand there, look cool and bring energy,” Boehmer said.

Members of the Red and Blue Crew get perks when it comes to sporting events as well. All members of the crew get special access to games with Red and Blue Crew cards, so they can attend games free of charge. This year, the students have also been working on creating t-shirts for members.

Along with the fun perks of being in the Red and Blue Crew, members are excited that teachers and admin are noticing their support and dedication to the school.

“A lot of students don’t really have opportunities to do anything,” senior Dakota Martinez said. “A lot of us who joined Red and Blue Crew, we want Admin to be like, ‘they're actually wanting to make a change and they’re making that change happen.’”

Being upgraded from a club to a class has made such a big impact on the significance of the crew as well as the opportunities that these members have been given, and they love every moment of it. Yet, there is still much more work to be done and many more ideas to amp up Mountain View’s school spirit even more.