Rowdy Crowd staple at North sporting events

From football to basketball to volleyball, one of the most iconic aspects of nearly all major sporting events at Fargo North is the Rowdy Crowd. This year, seniors Livi Olson, Payton Bjerke, and Liam Olson have taken up the role of leading the Rowdy Crowd.
As Rowdy Crowd leaders, some responsibilities these seniors have taken on include starting up chants, communicating with the cheer team, and picking themes for the games. “I love doing the cheers, it’s just so fun, just because it’s usually me and Livi and it’s just like two girls, and things get loud,” Bjerke said.
Another fun thing these seniors enjoyed about leading Rowdy Crowd this year was adding a new cheer, which quickly became a favorite for these seniors and attendee’s of volleyball games. “We made one up this season for volleyball, where it was like to the window, to the wall, we saw you shank that ball. So I liked that one because it was new and a lot of people liked it, so hopefully they continue to do that next year.” said Bjerke.
When choosing themes for the Rowdy Crowd there are many different forms of deciding what theme will occur at sporting events. The leaders use polls on platforms such as Instagram and Twitter with student run accounts to allow the student body to have an influence on themes for the more popular events such as football games. “You can see what themes people are most excited for and want to do right away” Livi Olson said.
For events later in the year that typically have less attendance, a simple theme such as blackout or school colors is usually chosen to encourage participation at games. Themes at these events are decided by a simple conversation among the leaders with little resistance to an idea for a theme.
Every sport has a different effect on the atmosphere of Fargo North, but Bjerke and Livi Olson both agreed that volleyball is their favorite sport to attend. “It’s part of the school year where everybody’s still excited to be at the events so there’s a lot of people there, plus it’s like an enclosed gym so it’s louder and more of a fun environment,” said Bjerke.
These high expectations will need to be carried on to the next generation of Rowdy Crowd leaders when the seniors pass the torch to the next generation. “We want to find someone that’s enthusiastic and like doesn’t care and will be loud, and you know, tell the younger kids to be loud as well,” said Livi Olson.
Of course, going to games at Fargo North is going to result in many funny moments. “Honestly, I think my favorite memory was the homecoming game, […] someone threw something forward at us,” said Livi Olson, “and we didn’t want to be mean, [but he needed to stop] so we pulled him down to the front and told him to go back and tell his friends that we yelled at him, but we didn’t.”
Another favorite moment these seniors had as a part of the Rowdy Crowd was during a volleyball game, where nobody was participating in the chant. “But there was a middle school section, and they were getting into it, so I went over there and was like, ‘you know what, you guys, you come join our Rowdy Crowd. We pushed all the underclassmen back and told them you’ll be up front row with our seniors,” Bjerke said.
The eighth graders made an impression on the seniors. “We had this one eighth grader help lead the chants, and then ever since then every time we see him we’re like ‘oh my god that’s the kid that helped with the chants,’” Bjerke said.
The Rowdy Crowd has accounts on Instagram, @fnh.rowdycrowd, and X, FNHRowdyCrowd. Livi Olson runs the X account, while Bjerke runs the Instagram. “Um, she’s just better at it, the posts are more put together,” said Livi Olson.
“I don’t play any sports, so I feel it was probably easiest for me to do it,” said Bjerke.
Attending sporting events at Fargo North is one of the best ways to get involved and is a tradition that will be carried out for many years to come as the atmosphere changes and grows with the student body.