Portage High School senior James Brasseur has made an impact on his school in a unique way this year. Prior to the start of the fall season, he created a Facebook group titled “Superfans of Portage High School” to provide an outlet to bring all of the Portage supporters together. Through his efforts, with the help of an active student body, there has been an increase in attendance among students at PHS sporting events this year.
“The support for the Portage teams got a lot better toward the end of the fall. For volleyball we had about 30 kids who would go to every game and follow whatever the theme was that night,” Brasseur said.
The Facebook page is used for planning theme nights, sending reminders of upcoming events and organizing the group of super-fans. All PHS students are invited to take part simply by joining the page. The group currently stands strong at 152 members.
Among the popular theme nights at sporting events this fall were sports gear night, lumberjack night and pajama night. Brasseur lists costume night, which was at one of the football games, as his favorite. The fans engaged in several skits/cheers during the volleyball matches, including human bowling, the rollercoaster, moose hunting and the human bicycle.
Brasseur is forced to manage his time wisely balancing his duties as a captain of the golf team and leader of the super fans with a heavy academic load, which includes AP Calculus. He said that during the season the super-fanning project takes up a lot of his time, but he finds a way to pull it off.
The break in between the fall and winter seasons is concluding with the start of the girls basketball season on Thursday night. Brasseur has been preparing to lead the supporters this winter.
“We hope to have a lot of people coming to the basketball games this winter to super-fan. I’ve been meeting with the wrestling coach, Coach Vega, and he wants to come up with a special thing that is unique to the wrestling team, like a shirt. He might wrap off a separate section for the super-fans at each home meet,” he said.
Brasseur is happy with the progress that the Portage Superfans have made, but he is still hoping for more improvement.
“I would like to increase attendance at a lot of the little sports, like golf, swimming and gymnastics. Hopefully we can get as many people as we can to come out on a regular basis and superfan for the teams,” he said.
James Brasseur came up with a great idea when he decided to use a Facebook group to help promote attendance at sporting events. He has displayed commitment in following through with the idea to help make the atmosphere at Portage sporting events one that makes visiting teams jealous. The Portage Superfans are always seeking new members and hope to continue to expand throughout the winter season.