Once again – to no one’s surprise – the Jackson Prep Patriot Pack has returned. The Patriot Pack, a group of Prep senior male cheerleaders, serves to attend all Prep sporting events, lead the student section, and hype up the crowd during games.
This year, the pack will be led by “Patriot Man” Charlie Faulk, and consists of fifteen senior guys: Parker Page, Nichols Katsaboulas, Sparks Grenfell, Chris Owen, Ty Davidson, Charlie Penny, Ben Segrest, Blake Collins, Thomas Werne, Res Ishee, Charlie Graves, Henry Jordan, Evans Reynolds, and James Bays.
The Patriot Pack attends every Prep sporting event, (at home and close away) and monitors the enthusiasm in the student section. The student section is divided normally with Pack members and other seniors in the front, followed by juniors, sophomores, and freshmen in the back.
The first game of the year was themed “pool party,” a tradition that has gone on for years. At this game, Pack members filled up water guns, balloons, and buckets full of water, and passed them around the student section. Therefore, when a touchdown occurred – which was often for this 41 to 14 game – the student section threw water everywhere, leaving everyone soaked by the time of departure.
However, as usual, Jackson Prep’s thrill could not have been more rejuvenated than by the time the Jackson Academy Raiders came upon the schedule.
Every year, the Jackson Prep Patriot Pack makes a hype video for the JA game’s pep rally. This year was no different, and maybe for the better.
As the video credits open, Head of School Lawrence Coco is seen tired, doing his job before walking out of the building to head home. However, as he heads out, he is kidnapped by masked villains supposed to be the Jackson Academy Rowdies (JA’s version of the Patriot Pack).
When the scene cuts, “Patriot Man” Charlie Faulk is introduced to do the Patriot Pack call: hog rider. Hog rider is a signature character and sound from the Clash Royale video game, and is used in the video to bring all the Patriot Pack members together to save Mr. Coco.
In the video, all Pack members have their own segment before they’re called. In the past, while some Patriot Packs have made their videos inside jokes, this Patriot Pack made it clear what they were doing.
Segments by Ben Segrest and James Bays poke fun at themselves by acting as characters such as Lebron James (Ben) and Batman (James). Once every member is called, they meet at Patriot Pack Headquarters (Preston Marion’s Pool House) to discuss a plan.
Once the plan was settled, the Pack came to the rescue, infiltrating “The Rowdies” headquarters and taking back Mr. Coco. Afterwards, the Patriot Pack and Mr. Coco run past the Pearl River to gain the flags and head back to Prep, running through the dirt, mud, and woods, before finally running through the back entrance of the gym.
As is custom, during half time of the JA football game, the student section had two volunteers for head shaving: Judson Colley and Edward Hall. However detrimental the impact may be on a student’s physical appearance, the Prep/JA game stands as a long testament to the pride our Patriots have for their school.
