CHS 2014 Fall Sports Season “Officially” Begins With Bonfire (08/30/14)

The 4th annual “Meet the Bobcats” Bonfire festivities took place on Thursday night (August 28), at the Clarion High School football field, with a good turnout for the program, which featured introductions of players and coaching staffs of every varsity sports team, the band and cheerleaders.

Master of Ceremonies for the Joint Sports Booster Clubs’ event, Doug Klein did a fine job in keeping everything moving along with his usual upbeat style.

The program opened with the Bobcat Marching Band playing two selections from this season’s half-time show, the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” and Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin.'”

Next, Klein thanked a number of those responsible for this night, including Clarion Borough, Clarion Volunteer Fire Company, the Clarion Area School District Administration and Superintendent Michael Stahlman, C-93 Radio, Carmike Cinemas of Clarion (for providing the popcorn), Booster Parents (for providing cookies) and the Booster Clubs for sponsoring the event. He also gave special thanks to Cindy Nellis for her fine work in coordinating the event.

The teams were then introduced, beginning with Bobcat Football Team (which also has members from North Clarion). After each squad was introduced, they posed with their decorated pallets, which would be placed on the wood pile for the Bonfire.

After the Football Team, there was a brief delay with the rest of the team introductions as new High School Principal, Mr. John Kimmel formally introduced himself and was then given a dousing with a Gatorade cooler of ice water, by Football Captains, Destin Strauser and Ian Corbett. Mr. Kimmel was answering the “Ice Bucket Challenge” for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) research, from Football Coach, Larry Wiser. Mr. Kimmel, in turn, challenged some others.

After the interlude, the team introductions continued with the Volleyball, Girls Soccer (co-op with Clarion-Limestone), Clarion-Limestone Boys Soccer (co-ops with Clarion), Boys and Girls Cross Country, Boys Golf and Girls Golf Teams being introduced.  Then the Marching Band was introduced, and the Cheerleaders led the crowd in new Bobcat Cheers as Mark Lui dazzled everyone with some amazing dance moves.

Another highlight was the Robotics Team passing out T-shirts to a number of folks in the stands, via their T-shirt cannon.

Everyone was then invited to go to the West end zone area where members of the Fire Company lit the huge Bonfire. The night ended with everyone enjoying watching the flames reach some thirty feet high.

Congratulations to the Joint Booster Clubs on a fine event and Best Wishes to all the Bobcat Fall Sports Teams!!!!

(Special Thanks To Maddie Thomas for the Great Photos!!!!)