Yes, you read that title correctly! I was a hype person for my high school 2018 senior football team. For those of you who are wondering what a hype person is, let me break it down.
As a kid, I’ve always wanted to play on a sports team but was told I couldn’t. As I grew up, I learned due to medical concerns; I couldn’t play any physical sports. The news that I couldn’t participate in any sports threw me through a loop because the high school I went to was huge on sports and everyone did something sports-related. Thankfully, I loved the arts, so I joined my school’s theater program and I made many friends that way. But, I still wanted to be connected to the sports world in some way. Thankfully, I had many guy friends that always tried to include me in things. So, with the connection to the guys and my creative smarts, I made my own title in the sports world. That title would be known to the football team and others as the hype person.
So what was my role as a hype person? Well, there are three significant aspects to my position. First, I collected the numbers of the senior players, and every time before the game, I’d text the group a positive and inspirational speech to motivate them to win. Second, I had a player of the week. The player of the week would receive a custom-created poster that consisted of their number, favorite color and inspirational sayings. The last thing I did was attend as many games as possible and even got access to be on the sidelines with the players.
My position as my school’s football team hype girl made my senior year so special. In the end, I attended the team dinner and got an award for being the top fan of the year. So you can see, even though I couldn’t play any physical sports, I participated in a way that I was still involved and an essential part of the team. Here are some tips that you can use to become your own hype person for your team:
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Start networking with some sports players and get to know them on a personal level
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Learn the sports lingo so you can better understand and communicate with the players better
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Once you network with the players, start networking with the coach
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Work on creating cute but simple posters: I usually used ink gel pens, a sharpie, sport stickers and dollar tree jot designer paper.
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Most importantly, inspire your team!!