Commuter captains EJ Shannon and Hailey Gregg stood inside The Underground doors. At 8:30 p.m., the commuters gathered for one final practice before the 9 p.m. performance. The back-to-back homecoming champions wanted the trophy again. They could feel the targets on their backs.
“I love it,” Shannon said. “We’re gonna make other teams fear us like we always do.”
Gray sweatpants. Gray sweatshirts. Baseball caps. The roughly 30 students composed the smallest team at the event, though according to U.S News, commuters make up about a third of Bethel’s students.
However, they are not the only ones vying for the win.
“Last year was their year,” Heritage Hall resident Taaron Rudzitis said. “And that’s it.”
Other dorms shared equal optimism.
“We’re going to win,” senior Lissner resident, Faith May, said. “Raise the morale of our dorm.”
The event pitted nine teams against each other in the Robertson Center Gymnasium competing to take home the shiny gold trophy.
Twenty minutes before the show started, the RC gym was already busy. President Ross Allen, his wife Annie Allen, Student president Mild Du, Bethel mascot Roy the Lion and other Bethel Student Government organizers continued preparations behind guarded doors.
“We didn’t have Cheer Night when I was here,” ‘82 alumni of Nelson Hall, Annie Allen, said. Allen said she’d be judging camaraderie, if the cheer looked practiced and the students’ facial expressions throughout the performance.
At exactly 9:15 p.m., spectators flooded the upper deck, and the first team, Getsch, surged in. Most wore black suit coats, but Devin Abbey, a freshman Biblical and Theological Studies major, pounded on a drum in a graduation gown.
“We got what it takes,” freshman business major and Getsch resident, Hayden Sperbeck, said.
One by one, each team rushed into the gym, shouting and cheering. Last came Lissner, with junior Isaiah Walvatne bringing up the rear on his lavender purple electric scooter.
The following 45 minutes were filled with shenanigans and noise. At one point, a group of students used their bodies to make a bench and safety net while one student pressed a Nelson RA off his chest. A dozen students played leapfrog, and several commuters sat down to participate in a game of duck, duck, goose.
Teams displayed makeshift flags held together by duct tape and cardboard signs. Nelson sought the judges’ attention by making cardboard cutouts of the President and Mrs. Allen
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Finally, at 10:03 p.m., the cheers began. The teams remixed well known songs, such as Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.”
Last year’s commuter champions sang Bethel-centric lyrics to“Hey Soul Sister” and “Born in the USA,” referencing their distaste for communal showers and visitation hours. and reminding the other halls of their lack of student debt.
Heritage cheered two teams later, with notable synchronization and a “We Will Rock You” by Queen parody. Students performed a coordinated clap, jingled their keys and bragged about their pool. Abe Evenhouse, a Heritage captain, claimed his team’s performance bested the commuter champions’.
“I’m excited for the rest of the week,” Evenhouse said. “It’s just the beginning,”
Competitions continue each night of the week, culminating in the banquet and dance on Friday evening. There, it will finally be announced if the commuters held fast for another year or were at last dethroned by another team.
