The tribe is ready to roll again this year. With the start of the new sports season, the tribe is excited to hype up the crowd at sporting events.

However, there are some changes being made that will alter the way the tribe usually brings energy to games.

One of these is students moving from the back of the end zone to the bleachers for football games.

After breaking the fence separating the players from the tribe three times within the past two years, the school has decided to move the student section up to the stands.

While the move is met with some resentment from students who enjoyed the unique opportunity to support their team from the field, others understood the decision.

Senior tribe leader Dillon Ruddell agrees with the move and thinks it is an appropriate change, calling it a “wake up call”.

“We broke our own stuff and damaged our own school’s property which is dumb,” Ruddell said. “It’s kind of a learning lesson.”

Fellow senior leader Tyler Weaver agrees with Ruddell’s statements and feels that complaining about the move is useless.

“If you don’t want to be in the stands don’t come,” Weaver said. “We’re still going to be lit, we’re still going to be the tribe, we’re still going to have a fricken great a** time. It’s all going to be the same, we just aren’t going to be behind the end zone.”

Granite Bay High School athletic director Tim Healy feels the move up to the stands is necessary, but unfortunate.

“(The decision to move the student section) frustrated me because I feel like I’ve done a lot to try and build what they get to do and how it comes out in the sense of school culture and spirit,” Healy said. “I think kids should be a part of every event we do here.”

Healy stressed that the move is in no way a retaliation or even a permanent punishment, but a measure the school needed to take to prevent monetary losses from repeatedly repairing the fences.

“If I see collectively that the mood of the group is spirited and respectful and (students) understand (the tribe is) not just about an individual trying to draw attention to himself by saying something that’s inappropriate,” Healy said. “then certainly I could see where I would try and go argue their case that maybe we move them back.”

The switch also has some aspects fans can look forward to.

“In some ways it might be easier to have (the kids) in the stands because it’s much neater, it’s higher, it’s more condensed, the fans will be tighter packed together, and so theoretically they can be louder,” Healy said. “They should have some fun interacting with the band since they can be pretty spirited as well.”  

Other things the leaders feel must stop this year is personal insults to opposing players.

“Breaking things is not cool, saying a bunch of insulting things to individuals is not cool,” Ruddell said.

Healy agrees that insulting specific opposing players or using emotional taunts is not what the tribe should stand for.

“They should be cheering on their team,” Healy said. “They should be celebrating their successes here, not making fun of someone else. Making fun of somebody is a pretty insecure, low-level way of getting enjoyment for yourself. I think we are better than that, we need to be better than that.”

Instead Healy suggests leaders think of three or four more creative and exciting chants to shout.

Despite the changes and differences, Healy and the leaders mostly just want a well connected student fan base on campus that creates a sense of community.

The tribe isn’t about the three or four people or the sports,” Ruddell said. “It’s about the school getting together.”