The weather is getting warmer and trees are getting their color back. It’s finally spring. Walk into a baseball, softball or tennis match, and you’ll be greeted by a group of girls in black t-shirts and colorful vests. These are the Lady Spirithunters, a group of female students who act as a support system for these sports teams, painting “war stripes” on fans’ faces and answering questions they might have. They show up to football games and various school-related events as well! We got the chance to talk with Lady Spirithunters’ President Riley Torrence about what they do every day.
Her Campus (HC): Tell me about Lady Spirithunters.
Riley Torrence (RT): Lady Spirithunters is a spirit-based organization here at FSU. It’s about 200 women who go to all of the home varsity games, football, baseball, soccer, tennis, both men’s and women’s and we paint war stripes on all the fans. Besides being really involved with athletics, we do a lot of service events, so philanthropy, Dance Marathon, [Relay for Life] and lots of social events too. We’re really big on bonding, we have bigs and littles, we do socials with other organizations and social events like that. We’re predominantly known for our war stripes.
HC: How do you become a Lady Spirithunter?
RT: We do our recruitment in the spring, every January our applications go out on Facebook pages, girls will turn them in, we have an interview process and then we accept the women who we find to be the best fit for our organization.
HC: What’s your goal as a Lady Spirithunter?
RT: The goal is to have an impact on the FSU community. It may seem small to paint a war stripe on a fan, but it does make the whole experience better for them, it creates and spreads spirit in a way in which we normally wouldn’t be able. We’re pretty unique to other schools and organizations, you don’t really find things like us, but we’re pretty much spreading that spirit we love so much because we love to give back to Florida State.
HC: As a Lady Spirithunter, how often do you personally have to show up to events?
RT: We’ll have a painting at every sporting event, but you don’t have to go to all of them, you only have to go to a few each semester. At every game, though, you’ll find a Lady Spirithunter painting faces, and we pretty frequently have other service and social events, so we keep pretty busy.
Since their inception, Lady Spirithunters have had a massive effect on the environment at FSU sporting events. They contribute greatly to the spirit, pride and joy in supporting Seminole athletics and, without them, it wouldn’t be the same. While it might seem like all they do is paint war stripes on fans, they engage in several other events (such as Dance Marathon, pictured above). As Riley said, painting war stripes on a young fan’s face might seem small but it could truly make their day.
All pictures courtesy of @rileytorrence on Instagram.