They’re back – bigger and louder than ever! Dressed in everything from camouflage to country to neon, the Cary-Grove super fans storm the stands ready to cheer on their very own Trojans. From body paint to the traditional baby powder, this year’s super fans mean business.

Looking into the stands one Friday night early in the year, one could not miss the sea of neon. The amount of people that showed up and went all out in the theme was something to be proud of. Looking into the opponent’s bleachers, you couldn’t find half the amount of people C-G had.

After losing last year’s head super fan, Ian May, the title was passed down to senior Matthew Duncan. With some big shoes to fill, Duncan has not disappointed,

“I feel completely honored to be the head super fan,” Duncan said. “When Ian told me at the beginning of the season last year that he was looking for someone to lead the super fans, I knew how much of a tradition the Cary-Grove super fans are and at first I really felt pressured and a little nervous that maybe I wouldn’t get the job done. However, as the season went on and I learned more from Ian, the great super fan leader he was, I really learned a lot and was excited to be head. I honestly think this year is going to be a great year for the Trojans and the super fans as a whole.”

From being in the stands and on the field myself, I am confident enough to say that this year’s super fans have been exceedingly loud and something to be proud of. Duncan agrees with me when I say that May would be extremely proud of how the super fans have turned out.

“I think he would be extremely proud because one of the things he stressed was people of all ages could come and super fan,” Duncan said. “He wanted to get the most volume and get people to be as loud as possible which is something I am emphasizing strongly this year – that every single person that goes to Cary-Grove is in the super fan section being as loud as possible and creating that volume that we really need to be known as the best super fans around. For that reason alone, I think he’d be extremely proud.”

Although everything has seemed perfect on the outside, inside the super fans there has been some controversy that Duncan would like to clear up.

“I know there were some different opinions toward whether or not we should allow freshman and sophomores to super fan,” he said. “Some seniors even didn’t like the idea of junior super fanning for some reason. I just want to make clear that without them, we would not be nearly as loud as we are which allows us to be the best that we can be.

“I want every freshman and sophomore to know that I back them one hundred percent and if anyone gives them trouble, they can come and personally talk to me because I want everyone to feel welcomed.”

So with that all cleared up, future game should see people from every class cheering in the stands with the seniors, as loud as they can be. Cary-Grove is a community that everyone should feel a part of. Besides, the more people there are – not only are we louder – the more intimidating we are with the abundance of fans towards the opponent’s super fans. Most importantly, our teams deserve as much support as they can get.

Although the football team lost their opening games, the super fans continued to show the boys that they would be there for them win or lose.

“I think losing the first two games only made us stronger because if somebody were to come out and watch that third game, they would have seen that that was the loudest we had been,” Duncan said. “With losing those two games, some people were skeptical as to whether or not we would have the depth of super fans, whether we’d have the number of super fans we needed to create that volume. But we definitely did; we filled that fan section completely to a point that when I was talking to some Cary-Grove alumni who were there watching the game, they said that they were on the complete other side of the bleachers and could still hear us as if we were right next to them, that we were being extremely loud.

“I truly believe that losing just fueled the fire and pushed us towards success since we learn from our losses. So in a way, losing is just another stride towards victory.”

No matter what, the super fans will always stand by our Trojans.