Listening to the roar of the crowd as they scream the school chant and watching the students get fired up for the main assembly event, senior Caroline Streb and junior Grace Kim understand exactly why they decided to join Wolfpack Crew.

“I joined Wolfpack Crew because I wanted to get more involved in school,” Streb said. “I wanted to be a part of something that makes other high schooler’s experience really exciting and unique.”

Wolfpack Crew is Southwest’s club that helps bring spirit back to the school in a positive manner. It’s open to juniors and seniors, and is run by math teacher Margaret Davidson and social studies teacher Mike Hardin.

“So, essentially, WPC, headed by Mrs. Davidson and myself, is concerned with raising school spirit,” Hardin said. “We want to create a tie in with the school and all of our great activities, and all the awesome things we do here that make us Timberwolves. We want to help foster that sense of community that’s so great about high school.”

After the famed 2015-2016 Upperclassmen Spirit War, school administration decided to put a stop to spirit chants before anything got too out of hand. But it left the community wondering exactly how spirit could stay in Southwest.

“It was definitely an issue, and there were a lot of complaints from students about it,” Streb said. “But we understood that the administrators wanted us to do this in a positive way. It was a decision that was out of our hands, but we worked hard with everyone in order to create a solution that worked.”

Wolfpack Crew is dedicated to getting students excited about going to events, and getting students excited about going to school without degrading one another, while still maintaining the typical “high school spirit” and competitive nature.

“Wolfpack Crew promotes all of the spirit events that go on,” Kim said. “People get to know about them ahead of time instead of not knowing about them at all. We promote getting involved in school and going to all the events that you can.”

Wolfpack Crew’s spirit in for their school creates a dynamic that wouldn’t usually be there, and it makes going to the school a unique experience. It helps get them, as well as the rest of the school, more involved and more prideful in their school.

“We want to help fuel the student body with spirit,” Streb said. “If we didn’t have a club that was so devoted to projecting that atmosphere, I don’t think that we would have the same feeling that we do now. It makes going to school here really special.”

In addition to promoting the Event of the Week, Wolfpack Crew runs almost all of the school assemblies, and puts a lot of time and effort into making sure that they run smoothly.

“We do pretty much everything during the assemblies.” Streb said. “We do all the sound systems, do the graphics for the screen and pick the music. We plan who talks on the floor, write the scripts, plan games and talk to the students about getting involved. Almost anything you can think of, we’re the ones that are behind it.”

On the outside, it appears that all the members of Wolfpack Crew are extroverts that don’t mind being the center of attention, and leaves those who don’t fall within those parameters wondering if they’d fit in. However, not all the members want to be on the floor and pump up the crowd, and would rather do the work behind the scenes.

“Every single one of our students are so success driven and so [school]-centered, and it’s awesome,” Hardin said. “They work really well together, they work really hard, and it’s just really impressive to watch them develop their leadership skills, to watch them be these people who help push the Timberwolf community forward, and come up with new inventive and innovative ways to engage students in all of the things that we do here.”

Both Kim and Streb said that WPC has helped in shaping their personalities, and that they don’t regret joining the club in the slightest.

“I’m a lot more confident than I was last year.” Kim said. “I’m reaching out to a lot of people that I usually wouldn’t reach out to, and I’m trying to get other students involved and excited about Southwest.”