New to McDaniel this year, the athletic council is a group of student athletes working to bring the sports community together. 

While meeting during lunch periods with principal Adam Skyles, the council brainstorms ways to improve the attendance at sports games and events. 

Each season, students team up to work on building community for the different sports teams. Seniors Tav Russ and Eli White, who played on the boy’s soccer team, worked with the girls basketball team this year to raise the attendance rates at different sports events. 

“We had ideas about the first 50 people getting pizza, and trivia at halftime, and t-shirts,” Russ said.

The council has had a few treats for people who arrive first to games. For example, boys soccer had free tacos from Taco Bell, and boys basketball had pizza and free shirts, in hopes of getting more of an audience for the game. 

Senior Rebekah Zahler, who played on the girls soccer team, is an “open ear” for the council, coming up with ideas with peers. 

“We give ideas about how we can support other teams and also how other people can support us,” Zahler said. 

She also helped support the wrestling team. 

“We posted about it, and we got our soccer team to attend which got a lot more people in the stands,” Zahler said. 

Building strong communities is a big part of McDaniel, and the athletic council is helping  to get more and more people attending events. 

As a concluding message from Russ, “Come out to games! Pull up, and support your teams!”