Many students participate in the Mad Cows spirits and go to the games, but do they even know who created the Mad Cows, or who gave them their name?
The freshmen, sophomores and juniors may not have a clue about how the Mad Cows were created, but the seniors might. The senior class of 2006 had the “Morris Maniacs” for the basketball season, but the Mad Cows officially started on Oct. 31, 2006 at Northwest High School.
Jeff Gratton (’07), Tommy Shekarchi (’07), Tim Cowan (’07), Stefan Dabic (’07) and Carlos Freitas (’08) created the Mad Cows in 2006 in order to get WJ’s crowd to cheer louder.
“More and more people just started to come [to games], bring drums and paint themselves,” said Gratton. “By the end of the year, however, we were happy to leave a legacy. Some classes left little plaques, or parts of the building, but we left a cheering group section.”
In that same year, not only was a “mad” cheering section established, but a name was given to them as well. English teacher Colleen McAdory gave the fans a name to go by.
“Three years ago at the Soccer State Championship game, a reporter asked one of the students what [the fans] were called,” said McAdory. “I turned around and said, ‘I think we should be called the Mad Cows.'”
After creating a strong cheering section and receiving an official name, the class of ’07 gratefully handed down the Mad Cows crown to the following grade.
“We just kind of looked for people like us in the grade below,” said Gratton. “Who on [the day of] a playoff game in the pouring rain would be out there with drums and paint [on them].”
As the school year of 2007-2008 came around, the ’07 seniors appointed ‘08 seniors Alex Chili, Freitas and Phil Jasper to continue the legacy of the Mad Cows.
“It’s not the cow that meant something specific, it was the fact that we were ‘mad,'” said Jasper. “I mean, who wants to confront a mad cow?”
The class of 2008 made the Mad Cows school-affiliated with the help of the Booster Club. Some students from the class of 2007 did not agree with this decision because the administration now had control over the actions of the Mad Cows.
“When it’s run by the school, they have a lot more say in what we do,” said Gratton. “I wanted to keep the Mad Cows something [the administration] couldn’t touch.”
While Gratton was against making the club school-affiliated, Jasper believed that it would give more to the club.
“We decided to make the club official, not just because it would legitimize us as a real prominent group, but due to the fact that it provided tools and support to really make the Mad Cows as loved and as feared as we knew it could be,” said Jasper.
When the end of the school year came, it was once again time to find new leaders to encourage the other students for years to come.
Freitas, alongside his fellow students encouraged all the students to come out to games and get the players and other fans pumped up.
“Phil [Jasper] and I figured we would keep it going,” said Freitas. “We encouraged other kids to come because it made [the game more fun] when more people go.”
After the class of ’09 graduated, this year’s seniors officially took over the Mad Cows. In the beginning of the school year, there was confusion about who would take charge of the Mad Cows. Seniors Andres Rocha and Daniel Kirwan naturally accepted the leadership of taking charge.
“Andres and I kind of took charge at the beginning of the year,” said Kirwan. “Then in Leadership, [advisor Nico] Atencio made it my assigned leadership project, along with Jessica Peterson and Richard Benjamin.”
Since the group’s creation, WJ has become known for their sport fans. Students from other schools in the county have taken notice of WJ’s loud fans.
“How do we compare to other fans?” said Jasper. “We don’t. Our shirts, our noise, provocative chants and constant cheer really do set an entirely new bar for fans that only we can reach.”
Not only has the Mad Cows encouraged WJ fans to show support and spirit, but student athletes also believe that the support from the Mad Cows has impacted their games in a positive way.
“[The Mad Cows] are so great,” said junior volleyball player Jennie Zelenko. “We owe so much to them. It’s really great to see all this support from so many people we go to school with. It really gets us into what we’re doing, too.”
With that in mind, Mad Cows are keeping their quest alive in order to support and cheer on WJ teams for many years to come.
AS SEEN IN PRINT
