important well one of the things recently we've been a two time winner of the sportsmanship award from pennsylvania interscholastic athletic right and the reason why we won that is not only that we haven't had kids ejected from games players on the field but also the conduct of our student sections has been so tremendous and been recognized by coaches and referees and things like that so so on one hand our conduct of games goes before us and right after the name of peters township when people think of peter's township high school they think of what their experience was in the limited number of times that they interacted with people from peter central high school and and for most people those interactions centers around their experience of sitting across a court or sitting across a field that kind of thing from our our student section so student conduct at games is so important because it represents the character of our school you know i often reference the iceberg analogy of interactions with people in judgments that people make you only really get a couple interactions with with people that they make a full judgment on the entirety of someone's character or the entirety of a culture of a high school based on just a few interactions and so those moments are very critical in life not just for individuals to take advantage of those moments but for our school as a whole student body to take advantage of those moments to make sure that we know that we are being judged and being understood and based on just a few interactions and those games and the behavior versatile sections at those games or those few interactions for a lot of people you promote the good behavior at the school games so our image to the community is well good so how do we how do we promote for our students do you mean like how do we set the stage to ensure or at least create a scenario in which it's most likely that we'll have  behavior so one of the things is that we recently created our our rowdy red club this year that's a new thing you know i'm big on students creating where they see a niche not being filled you know if they see something that's needed  to go ahead and create doubt i want to give students that opportunity and so some students in the senior class this year that if they've been some informal leaders in the past have kind of become formal leaders and made an official student run club run a red club and that what they do is weekly they get together and plan out what are going to be kind of the the set cheers that will be led in the student section  trying to branch beyond the simple you know let's go you know like just beyond the simple and everybody knows we're trying to kind of expand our repertoire of of cheer so that's that's one way secretly in doing so you keep the negative chanting out when you give i find it that student sections when you were talking about like a crowd mentality people have a tendency to fill gaps that they don't understand with what they think is right and  so we had an incident in the fall at the football game just to use an example of a time when people thought something was right but it had a reaction that wasn't intended specifically when we played bethel park and hosted we received of course of your social media some of the nastiest complaints you can imagine but that social media but in regards to the real situation you know there was a concern that people had the idea that peters township students were rude discourteous and unappreciative of the efforts that the bethel park day and has put forth this year and getting ready for their performances and that that was seen  a big time slight to their band so i interviewed our students you know some of our leaders because our seniors every year are the leaders of the group informally and they stand down front and they say turn around everybody and everybody turns around you know and so i gathered a group of them in mrs pavlik and this is rag and i gathered them in and read to them some of the the more the concerns that you take more seriously the ones that were legitimate concerns not just the crazy facebook person but so we read to them the concerns and they were just kind of like wow we had no idea that that would be the response that they would maneuver not one person did it to be discourteous or router it's a struggle to the band like it had like nothing to do with the band they in fact the most common response i got when interviewing students say that we just thought that's what spirited students sections of do we thought that you know we see colleges do it all the time we thought that when you know if you are a good spirited school like we've been really growing in school spirit and ramping it up and we thought that 's just kind of like the next step like you just you turn around when the other teams band performs and it's like this is out it's received when you do something like that you know so out of that came the creation of the rowdy red club and  you know more cheers more organized or the cheerleaders being on board with the band being on board with the student section and and the games got a lot more fun and if anybody attended those games a know that there were a lot more fun things like t shirt tosses we had the you know the chalk dust in the air kind of thing and they were just there was more unity because we're focused on our team and we're focused on promoting our players and encouraging ourselves to cheer and have a festive event that's all about petey pri rather than about the other team or trying to bring them down or tear them apart so i think that you know i have seen our students kind of ebb and flow with that and i find that great things have a tendency to come out of some mistakes that are made i believe that all mistakes everybody makes mistakes it's what we do once we've made a mistake that really defines who we are we did send a formal letter our executive council student leaders all of your elected officers did send a formal letter of apology to the park high school we sent it to their principal and to their band director it was extremely well received and in fact we've had some great relations with the bethel park and their administration as a result of the apology so it's one of those things where you know had the incident ever occurred we probably wouldn't have that wrong a report with him now so how he said like he said big groups at the games how do you control the big groups of the games so that some of that that doesn't happen again the short answer in this is going to be awed and come from a principle that you don't control a group a group is a crowd a crowd is can quickly get out of hand and when you have numbers that are that large it's difficult to control so the thing is that you know the individuals though and you set a relationship so i find that when it comes to controlling the crowd and i would never say that i in any way or the administration  controls of this crowd that's not that's not really in our interest we want you guys to have fun we want you to be spirited for your team for your players and feel like you're part of something bigger you know and and the way that you do that is by is by really encouraging the positive stuff to happen because that's where the fun is you know that when people really have fun is when is when they're really feeling like they're part of something larger than themselves and so i so i find that our students here are so respectful like you  probably don't realize but as far as respect goes you're like the nicest group of kids in the entire pittsburgh area you know i mean because i don't know anybody beyond that but you know everybody that i've met this is the nicest collection of students when it comes to like respect and so there are times where people are doing sort of like looking like they're going to put somebody up in a crowd surf moment and we'll just give a look like and the kids would be like oh you know like oh oh i'm so sorry i'm s don't like these kids are the nicest kids out there so we absolutely love working with the crowds here they're so easy to work with and what i love is that you guys love to get hyped up and sure i love a good idea of if you guys don't know i was my i was my high school's mascot and i love having things to be excited about you know i like i like to be excited about things like that i love to see other people having a great time and and be excited about their school and feel like they love it here and so you know i would like it's one of my favorite things the world when when kids are like hey we do the roller coaster yes let's do the i love that you know i mean i love when people are together doing the same thing i think that sends a message that is way bigger when we're doing something that's unified and for us everyone else watching says i wish i went to school there i mean that's the result i've heard from kids that are student leaders because we host student leaders at a leadership conference and we talk to them and i like we've seen you guys do cheers i wish we had that in our school with the cheers in the v a groups in the roller coaster that you do how would students appear at the games like encourage the players on the field and the crowd the other parents and family members in general something i've always said and i said this when i when i coached as well is that there is not one person alive that doesn't love having people cheer their name when they do something awesome that's common among everyone everyone loves that moment and so whenever our student section can cheer for the accomplishments of others it really sends a message that that's appreciative and if the person feels a great sense of encouragement from that so you just watch ask any of our athletes that have had you know the cheering section going for them they love when it's loud and i do things like that maybe not the golf team but they like when you cheer later after they've sunk the part you know so but  you know in terms of the other games when when you get hyped up and cheer for someone's name it really sounds like an energy wave to them and so i think that that really promotes for the athletes it really creates a good good atmosphere to play and  so we all know that friday nights are always the football nights and a lot of kids go to find at football games how do we get other kids to go to the soccer events the golf of and tennis swimming how do we get kids to go there and show our school spirit so that's a question that is not easily answered it is a question that students have been asking as long as i've been here and i'm sure they've asked it before that it is it is not easily answered your you've space your cheerleading team intruding boosters have in years past and like the i forget exactly what they called it the spirit committee that's what it was and to try to promote a game of the week or two leaders still do the same thing that sign that's outside the library they always put game of the week the trying to promote a game of the week or they're trying to promote senior nights or nights against our biggest rivals things like that  when those games are occurring to try to get people out people are busy like the answer is it may sound negative to say that because things are better here than they are elsewhere in fact one of the things that mr guy or our athletic director hears all the time and mr mays he's one of our event coordinators for the athletic department he hears it from athletic directors all the time they go how do you get so many kids and all of your sports games  now it feels to our athletes like man i wish we had more kids coming out of these games why isn't it the same way as it is for football or basketball like why don't they come and see us but know that compared to other schools the attendance that we have a student sections is typically on the average in comparison with our rivals is higher so like the other schools are asking this question even on a higher level of how do we get more kids to come to games so how do you get more has it come to games  i don't know i wish i had a really good answer for that we would have employed that answer a long time ago i had that answer but we promote the game of the week we try to make special event nights we try to do that but people are busy and they're busier now than ever before and we just have a tendency to prioritize things that we know that everyone's going to side note whenever you're promoting an event and i've tried to tell the captains and student leaders this over the years is never say hey we're trying to get people to come to this event never say it like that no one will ever come to your event so when you go to college and things like that you're trying to put on an event you have to lie at first and say everyone is coming to this event like it has gravity already like come to this event everyone's going to be there if you don't go you're missing out i have found that the events that have been promoted like that over the years are the ones that people come to because no one wants to go and be like i'm the only person here or not everybody here if they feel like there's momentum already people will jump on things with gravity have a tendency to grow more gravity things without gravity it's hard to get initial gravity so i find that when you're promoting an event really like pump it up like it's happening everyone is going to be there you know you're going there going i don't know they're going but i'm telling you that they're going because i want you to go so with promoting an event to sell t shirts for various sports would you say that selling shirts would promote the event everybody sells shirts i find that whenever i go to your executive council leaders does t shirts you know i've seen schools do hats i've seen schools do bracelets i've seen schools do you know other things so i think outside the box i have i don't know if t shirts are enough to dr draw people to game the heart association likes to sell t shirts and have us like get a free admission to a basketball game each year if we sell that you sell the heart association t shirt for ten bucks and then we beg and plead with mr guy or let people have free admission that have that sure and that it promotes them buying a sure money goes to the heart association but outside of that you know i don't know how successful just t shirts are well decide the t shirts we have the student spirit weeks why would students spirit week help promote not only the games but student spirit at school like i said before is that people have a tendency to be drawn to be part of something all of us who want to be part of something larger than ourselves we want to feel like we belong and we want to feel like we come from a place that other people would want to be you know and and come from a place that has a meaning for us so things like spirit week while they may seem on the surface superficially kind of that's a little thing it's a petty thing or something like that it actually has has a big result when it comes to people feeling like  belong and feeling that they're part of it you know even when we do black and gold days which we don't do too many of and i should probably initiate more of those when our teams are in the playoffs and things like that but i always get the e mail from the elementary school that they're doing a black and gold day and i look and we just dismissed you know it's like one of those like tomorrow would've been a great black and gold day but in regards to anything we're doing we're community comes together and that's what the spirit weeks are the it's an opportunity for us to do something silly kind of get outside of our comfort zones and and really do something together and feel like we have a community here so anything that is done here if you think about it through your memory of like what was what was fun what was really good what were your best memories from high school a lot of them have a tendency to center around events like that so how do we make great memories here at peter's with our students one of the things that i have found i am not i'm not super old and therefore not able to make wisdom oriented statements but at the same time my experience has taught me that the only things that matter are those that are relational in nature your family and the deep sense of friendships that you have here are the things that you will remember and that even though you probably fight with your family more than you fight with anybody at the same time you know everyone will say at the end of their life they wish they had more time with their family you know even though that you yell and scream with your brothers your sisters your mom your dad your kids but even that they're frustrate you more than anyone because they have access to a part of your heart that no one else does right at the same time as humans i find that we are defined often by the way that we establish relationships and maintain those relationships and that's truly what we valued on in so i think that in high school we have to focus on what are the things that construct relationships rather than tear them down it's not about the things it's about the people you know and so  those are the things that you remember those are things that you'll look back on fondly from high school specifically for me i look back on time in the musical i loved being on on stage in the musical and being part of that because the cast like you if you've ever been in a play or something like you do you come together like a family and because you spend so much time together and you fight with one another and it's what you don't like and you just build strong relationships a reporter that lasts a lifetime and so you know from college my favorite memories are with with my hall mates my dorm mates that are now still best friends you know best man in my wedding i was best man in there so you know it's those relationships it's those things  i find those activities that support those relationships are the things that you should be interested in both in high school and in college because that is where you make those relationships and friendships but you say that our student spirit weeks and going to games will support the bond in the relationship and create new bonds even yeah i think anything that again that promotes the culture around here and kind of gives opportunities for people to come together around a common purpose in films up for that you know i mean that's  when i first got here the senior servant day homecoming day like the madness that is that day as a as a i had been a principal elsewhere and to come here and and i was like whoa this is chaos like we've got to put an end to this immediately like that was like this is how can i first i was like that we've got to stop this day this stuff is out of control this is off the chain is no teaching or learning that happens on this day we all notice that it still goes on and the reason why is because we came to realize and appreciate that like though it is crazy and disruptive and louder and there's a lot of you know cross dressing and craziness that goes on and people dress like animals you know at the same time it it's one of those things where it allows us to kind of bring down our barriers a little bit be silly with one another and has a tendency to be some of the better memories that we have of this place and it's hard to be against something like that what would you say your best memory of our student spirit week would be that your time here put on my time and say i'm excited to go to work today the thing for me about being a principal is i love to see you guys thrive it's like when i see students really push boundaries and succeed in those things or struggle and overcome to me those are really real life experiences happen i'm a big believer in embrace struggle and work through it and don't give up because on the other side of that struggle is a whole life lesson that you wouldn't have otherwise gotten so for me when i see the mcs or the pep rally like i meet with the mcs or the pep rallies i meet with them extensively like i meet with them for a good half hour to an hour and go over like how to run a crowd things that we talked about earlier here and you know how do you get people focusing on the positive and moving in a positive direction to things and go south you know real fast with the crowd and so how do you keep the crowd  how do you talk on a microphone how do you you know and all your pep rallies i don't know if you guys know but they're playing by students entirely like and tiredly like i don't plan anything in fact the only adult  only adult work on it is like with the band they have to go to the band director to get the band kids involved with the sound they have to go to mr to pay for the sound crew to make sure that there's kids there to set up a sound like outside of that there's no adult involvement in the student leaders plan and execute the pep rallies from start to finish from the selection of the mcs to the lineup of the order and so for me watching them like freaked out and then some figure it out and then solve it and then like yell at people and then see people and celebrate with people and and for you guys it's like a twenty minute pep rally is like yeah let's go on the bus and get out here but the team that put that pep rally on it was a huge accomplishment and for me to watch them operate is like i get to go home and say i did something good today you know so so student involvement student organization for students fair and what that any way shape or form directly correlate with the student conduct like having students run things that  like the cheers or the roller coaster how can it not and you know my my belief is that the more people feel like they own this place and the more say they feel that they have in the things the better things go  as i said earlier we we are bringing kids here from other schools in february for a student leadership conference and we have gone to this conference years in the past and in fact we created the conference six seven years ago  anyways the purpose is we get student leaders from all the other high school together and they talk about like what they have how they can talk to their principals more they can advocate more for their student body like how what's their role with technology does their school permit devices things like that and that is also a very fun thing for me because it's totally student run but our students always come back and go holy cow we have things so good here i know that when we're here it's like oh i complain about this and i wish less than paddling raglan did this better i wish they would allow us to do this and i wish they would open up you know i wish they would open up snap chat is a gram on the on the why fight like i know that there are complaints and no one are is perfect and nobody is perfect but at the same time like when we get to go see what other  schools have you realize like wow we actually have a lot of freedoms that have been given to the student body so there are a lot of things that you have here that were totally advocated by students you're bring your own device policy in fact you can have phones here was advocated by the executive council six years ago and they got the board to approve that you have organic chemistry as a class offering because students went to the school board your exact count so advocated for that to happen so for me giving students  voice allowing students to feel like we can change things we can create clubs if there's a need we can we can have things added to the curriculum that kind of stuff when you feel like you can talk and be listened to you have a tendency really enjoy this place and own it more and therefore soon behavior is like no problem how do students own our football games our time and put in the stands for any game the rather read club or things like that like we encouraged kids to come up with the cheers for the kids like i could come up with that years but then they'd be from me some old fuddy duddy the principal right so it's so much better when it's coming out of the students and it's much more organic that  way like i said when students feel like they have a voice in something they own it more and when they own it they don't want to be screwed up they don't want to mess it up they don't want to vandalize it they don't want to be a that it they don't want to get kicked out of it they want to be there because it's theirs so  having having students feel like they have a voice or are feeling there are people that will listen to them you know that's that's important it seems we've won a time for this episode of the scoop i would like to thank mr lesson for coming on the show today discuss the topic of student spirit and conduct during high school games went into finding out of the importance of student spirit and conduct as well as a correlation of conduct in participation we also covered good times and bad during the high school athletics finally i would like to thank the media department