In Louisa County, high school football is a prime event, so when the Friday Night Lights come on, everyone’s rooting for the Lions to bring home another win. After being picked as Head Loonie, senior Cullen Hamel has one goal: to bring back the same spirit that won the Loonies the 2019 FLS Varsity Student Section Challenge. 

   “I want to get everyone participating and excited to go watch our teams play,” Hamel said. “I am going to try to hype it up as much as possible to bring back that level of excitement.” 

   Each year, a new Head Loonie is selected when the previous year’s leader passes down the spirit stick. This person is usually a senior and is in charge of keeping the spirit stick along with leading the Loonies in chants and deciding the themes throughout each season.

   “Being chosen was a big deal to me,” Hamel said. “My brother had a big role in the student section, so ever since I was a freshman, I have been working towards being head Loonie.”

   During the 2020 season, fans were not allowed to attend due to the pandemic. Then, in the 2021 season, students were allowed with face masks on. So this year is the first season since 2019 that students are allowed to have a student section with no regulations. 

   “I think it’s awesome that we have so many kids in the student section each game supporting us, and we feed off of that,” head coach William Patrick said.

   As Head Loonie, Cullen holds great responsibility this year because of having to reconnect everyone due to lost spirit throughout the past two years. 

   “I want to work to get everyone involved and have our student section big and loud like it has been in previous years,” Hamel said. 

   Hamel encourages students to show up every week and be spirited. His hard work is paying off by bringing in attention from the fans, the team, and the coaches.

   “I think Cullen is doing a great job as Head Loonie,” Patrick said. “The student section is packed. Everyone is engaged and cheering for us to win. We play football for a lot of different reasons. We play for our classmates, our school, our community, our administration. We play for everybody. Every one of you are so important to our success.”