Barbaric Vikings of centuries ago left their mark on cultures everywhere. One winning tradition has\u00a0trickled down through history, and that is the Viking chant. Once used to excite brutal fighters, it now\u00a0excites fans of the Catholic High Rockets. With its ear shattering drum beat followed by claps, does it\u00a0have a deeper meaning?<\/p>\n
The promoter of this new-found tradition is Mr. Steve Aday. He said, \u201cI got the idea from an article that\u00a0commented on a tweet by Chris Fowler, the ESPN sports news analyst. He tweeted and said it would be\u00a0very cool if college student sections did this \u2018Iceland rhythmic clap\u2019 type of thing. I had never heard of it,\u00a0so I watched the attached videos from the Iceland soccer team\u2019s fans doing the chant at a game and at the\u00a0team\u2019s return home. It\u2019s exactly what I told the skit cheerleaders to do for their first skit. I said \u2018forget\u00a0college football sections, we\u2019re bringing this to Catholic High!\u2019 We copied it from Iceland, but answered\u00a0Chris Fowler\u2019s call.\u201d<\/p>\n
The skit cheerleaders lead by senior Duncan Diaz explained the Viking chant, and the whole school\u00a0performed it at the first pep-rally. A signal blast from senior Daniel Witherall\u2019s trombone would tell the\u00a0student section to stand and raise their hands. Then, junior Ruben Mandujano\u2019s two drum beats signaled a\u00a0clap. Drum, drum, clap. Drum, drum, clap. Faster and faster until the air fills with shouts and claps.<\/p>\n
Mr. Aday planned it so that the skit cheerleaders would dress and act as if they were doing a skit, then\u00a0they would bring out a drummer and teach the skit as a new tradition. Skit cheerleader senior Josh\u00a0Neuman said, \u201cI would describe it as a way for fans to really get into the game. It gets everyone standing\u00a0up and paying attention. It gets them really focused into what is really happening in the game and brings\u00a0them back together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Aday sees the Viking chant as a unifier. He said, \u201cThis is the type of thing that people can realize\u00a0\u2018this is something that no one else does.\u2019 Everyone wants to have a cheer that is new, fun, and unique, and\u00a0I feel this one will catch on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upon the second pep-rally, a new pair of drummers had the chance to beat the drum. The duo was senior\u00a0Nathan Baltz and sophomore Elijah Talley. Talley, a cancer patient who recently underwent a round of\u00a0chemotherapy, said, \u201cIt meant a lot to me to be out there. Being a part of a tradition at Catholic High is a\u00a0really amazing thing. It was awesome to see how much of a brotherhood Catholic High is, and it made me\u00a0feel really grateful to be part of this school. It\u2019s great to know that no matter how long I\u2019m away for\u00a0treatment, I\u2019ll always be welcomed back by my teachers and classmates. My family and I are really\u00a0thankful that the school community has been so supportive and helpful, especially when we\u2019re going\u00a0through difficult times.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was proud to stand next to Baltz who also experienced cancer treatment two years ago. Talley surprised Baltz by\u00a0calling him out to beat the drum alongside him. Talley\u00a0said, \u201cI feel really lucky to know Nathan because I\u00a0look up to him a lot. I insisted that I could not lead the chant without him out there with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neuman said, \u201cI\u2019ve seen how amazing and loud the Viking chant is at the\u00a0football games and pep rallies, but when Elijah and Nathan were in the middle of the basketball court\u00a0leading us, I saw how the chant can be even more powerful–powerful enough to give students a special\u00a0moment in like this their lives. These are the types of traditions that truly matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barbaric Vikings of centuries ago left their mark on cultures everywhere. One winning tradition has\u00a0trickled down through history, and that is the Viking chant. Once used to excite brutal fighters, it now\u00a0excites fans of the Catholic High Rockets. With its ear shattering drum beat followed by claps, does it\u00a0have a deeper meaning? The promoter of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":7550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[196,1],"tags":[143],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/liftoffnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/DSC_0638.jpg?fit=800%2C532&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xfZw-1Xh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7519"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7519"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7556,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7519\/revisions\/7556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}