It’s Friday afternoon, and the words “Let’s Go Tigers” echo in the ears of students as they leave NASH. Students are preparing for the evening football game. Some head to Target to buy onesies, while others raid closets, turning their rooms inside out in search of that one pair of sunglasses.

Needless to say, the North Allegheny Student Section goes hard at football games — and it’s all about the themes.  Past years have seen white-out, gold rush, camo, and more, all decided in advance by the Student Section leaders.  But last week, everyone had a say.

“We originally planned to have it be Decade Night. but we heard from a lot of students that they weren’t sure what they could wear and were suggesting we switch it,” Student Section Co-Leader Carli Leonard said. “So we put a poll up and ”Pajama Night” got the most votes, so we went with it.” 

Co-leader Peter Lawless attested to the pressure the leaders feel when it comes to theme decisions. “The criticism can be very stressful,” he said. “It’s always hard to come up with new ideas to please two high schools’ worth of students, especially when you have almost twenty years of tradition behind you.”

But with the fate of last week’s theme in the hands of the students, the pressure was lifted.

“With the majority of kids nowadays on social media, I thought of an idea that could incorporate the student body’s opinion on Twitter,” Lawless added. “With the large amount of followers on our Twitter page, I knew we would get a very diverse and honest voting poll.” 

Leonard was delighted by the result.  “We want the students to be able to have fun and really get into it,” she said, “so we were happy that we got so much participation in the poll.”

Lawless echoed the sentiment.“It turned out to be a huge success, and everyone seemed to be pleased with the results, even if their preferred theme didn’t win the poll,” he said. “All in all, it was a good way to satisfy our student body and be original leaders.” 

While they did manage to incorporate student preference, they also stressed the importance of keeping traditions.

“We tried to keep the basic themes like white-out and gold rush to stay true to NA, along with kind of roasting or joking with some teams; Butler is Camo and Central Catholic is Frat night for the ‘preppy rich kid’ stereotype they have going,” said Leonard.

Whether the Student Section leaders will do another theme poll is uncertain.  What is certain, however, is that Friday nights will remain as intense as ever.