A long awaited Cheer Off win for the new off-campus students kicked off this year’s Welcome Week events at St. Thomas University.
Saru Gupta, this year’s group leader for OC, led the group to its first win eight years. She said she had a very emotional reaction.
“I cried,” said Gupta. “I really wanted this.”
She said she and the other leaders were confident they would win before the showdown, and losing wasn’t an option.
“We were like ‘Guys, we have to win this,’” said Gupta. “We just kind of told them that we had to.
“I was like, ‘It’s going to happen, so you might as well do it.’”
Fourth-year student Brandon Nitz was also a Welcome Week leader. He participated in the Cheer Off for OC in his first year and said there was a lot that set the new students apart compared to the group he competed with.
“In my freshman year, OC didn’t win. Not by any means,” he said. “This year our freshies were so pumped and focused.
“Our group was huge compared to my year, which definitely made a difference for presence as well.”
The same confidence the leaders had going into the competition wasn’t shared among all of the first-year students.
“It wasn’t something that I even half-way expected,” said Alex Phillips, first-year OC student. “There were so many times I thought we would get kicked [out] because we were so nervous and excited that we forgot words.”
Another first-year student, Taylor Barrett, came late to the practice and ended up second guessing herself. But once the cheering started, her competitive side came out.
“I started to feel a rush of adrenaline as we lined up and started running out to the centre where all the residences were.”
Barrett also said the Cheer Off brought people together.
“I don’t know why or how we won,” she said. “But if I was to guess, it is probably because OC just from the start seems like such a tight knit group and we work well as a team.”
Gupta said winning this year’s Cheer Off kick started a change in how the campus views the off-campus group.
“Off-campus is never considered as a residence,” she said. “I guess that’s changing because there was so many people this year and they were so happy to come.”
Nitz said his goal was also to change this misconception. He believed winning the Cheer Off accomplished that goal.
“As an OC leader returning to help the new students just like leaders did in my year, [it] was all about showing them how much fun we can have without a dorm and how we can be a huge family without living next door to each other.”
