Delaney Lueck

In the midst of shirt toss, senior Aedan Romero takes flight to launch a t-shirt into the crowd. The crazies were the stars of the show during our Fall pep-rally, leading and getting the school ready for the Battle of Q-Street which took place just hours later. ”Honestly, I was a little nervous to see how everyone would react to this years crazies, but as we took the stage, everyone was super excited and it ended up being a lot of fun,” Romero said. ”My one goal was to prep everybody for the game, and just simply get the energy going from the start.”

As we kick off the new school year, this also marks the beginning of football season and the revival of the infamous Millard West student section, led by none other than the Wildcat Crazies.

 The tradition of the Crazies has been set in place since the opening of the school in 1995, and has been carried on to this day. Prior to the school year, juniors applied to be a Wildcat Crazy for their upcoming senior year. After the selection process, a batch of seniors are chosen to be the official Wildcat Crazies. This year’s Crazies squad consists of seniors Nick Wright, Ella Konwinski, Evan Shidler, Kaitlin Kluch, Aedan Romero, Manuella Komla-Ebri, Hannah Churchill, and Ariana Otten. Romero shares his thoughts on what it means to be a crazy.

‘’To me, it means leading the school, with pride and giving everyone energy,’’ Romero said. ‘’I think we have a good group of crazy people, we are all ready to take the school by surprise with our energy and enthusiasm, but regarding Friday I’m super pumped for the game, and I’m really hoping we can start out on the right foot for this season.’’

The Wildcat Crazy lifestyle is nothing new to Konwinski. The Konwinski household has produced multiple crazies with another one just arriving on scene.

‘’Two of my sisters were crazies, Macy in 2018 and Ava in 2021,’’ Konwinski said. ‘’Ever since seeing Macy be one I’ve been waiting for my senior year to get the same chance and show my love and school spirit for Millard West’’ Especially now that I’m a senior I can’t wait to be the leader at school and now I get the chance to lead at all the sporting events.’’

The students are not the only ones behind the operation. When Millard West was established Mr. Joekel (the school’s first athletic director), brought the idea of the Wild Crazies to life. The torch has then been passed to athletic director Lance Smith.

‘’The Wildcat Crazies are an essential part of the Millard West community,’’ Smith said. ‘’They were created at the start of Millard West because it’s important for the student body to bring energy and enthusiasm to sporting events and other school activities. The thing I learned from Mr. Joekel is that the Wildcat Crazies is the whole student fan section and the chosen representatives lead the rest of the Crazies. The positive impact they bring unites us as a student body and it is so uplifting for the athletes who work so hard for their school. School spirit also heads off so many negatives that people could have about the school. I want students to look back on their days at Millard West and have wonderful memories and the game day atmosphere should be a great time they’ll never forget.’’

The assemblement of the 2023 Wildcat Crazies has propelled Millard West to have a great year of athletics on the field and also in the stands.