The second-ever “Thursday Yell” will take place after the JV football game at Max Goldsmith stadium tonight.

Last Thursday’s “First Yell” attracted around 200 participants the night before the football team’s 25-23 district opening win against Flower Mound.

“Thursday Yell” mimicks Texas A&M’s midnight yell, a community pep rally that takes place the night before a home football game in which chants and other spirit rituals are practiced.

Allison Stamey, Student Activities Director and Student Council advisor, said the event was created to boost student involvement.

“Being here from back when we were state champs, we have seen the spirit in the school decline,” Stamey said. “We have seen the dress up days decline. So we’ve been talking for several years about what we are gonna do to be able to build it, build it, build it. We have to do something to keep the tradition going.”

Rowdy crowd practices had previously been held during lunch, in hopes of evoking greater school spirit and student participation, but those proved unsuccessful.

Searching for further options, Stamey explained the situation to her son, Michael Jimenez, last year’s student body president, now attending Texas A&M.

“He said y’all need to try to do a yell like A&M does,” Stamey said. “He was telling me how great it was. The senior officers were here and I’m like, ‘Why don’t y’all go to [basketball coach Jeff] MeGown, let’s try to plan a yell like A&M does.’”

MeGown, an alumnus, had also seen the decline in school pride.

“Coming from someone who played sports here, you play sports because you love the sport and all that stuff, but you also get out there and you play for the school, and you play harder if you have a good crowd,” MeGown said.

During a meeting in the StuCo room the night before “FIrst Yell,” Stamey, the senior officers, the boneheads, a couple members from the drum line and other student representatives planned an agenda and went over the final touches.

“I told them MeGown and I both agree that it needs to be student-led,” Stamey said. “We said, ‘It needs to be planned though, you can’t just go out and do it.’ We practiced every little detail and the drum line guys learned the beat and everybody learned their stuff so that we would be able to have different chants not only for football season, but for basketball season, baseball season, any team that needs additional spirit.”

Stamey said the organizers expected a modest turnout of 60-70, but were surprised to see the crowd number in the hundreds. The organizers were even more surprised when Principal Jeffrey Kajs requested they do it again the next week.

Senior Mitchell Eltzholtz, rowdy crowd leader, sees the yell as a unifying experience.

“It’s a moment on a Thursday night where all of the Farmers can forget about their differences and relate to each other as one, and become one,” Eltzholtz said. “It’s basically like an improved pep rally.”

For senior varsity football player Kevin Momah, the yell was confidence-boosting.

“I thought it was pretty cool,” Momah said. “I felt really supported by the student body. Like they actually [came] late at night to work on football chants. I felt really good about myself and the team.”

Bonehead Kevin Fagan described the yell as an opportunity to have fun while supporting the team.

“The whole idea behind it is for us to quote, unquote ‘get hype,’” Fagan said. “We pretty much show up, do chants, get really excited for the next day, get in the correct mindset and go home. Make fun of the other team a little bit, tell a couple stories, a couple jokes, and that’s pretty much it. You just go, you have fun, represent and go home.”

Tonight’s yell will be to prepare the fans for Friday’s “Battle of the Axe”/homecoming matchup against rival Marcus, which will also feature recognition of the 1993 Farmer state championship football team at halftime.

“We’re hoping that with the last one being good [we’re] going to have more people come… kinda get the word out,” Fagan said. “This Thursday, it’s getting personal.”