Tell me Patriots, who is going to track every competitive sports team’s score within Township? With all the excitement and high energy going around for the upcoming and current season of sports here at Township, it becomes harder to track the current database of scores for each of our individual teams. Let’s face the facts. There are more than a dozen teams within FTHS’ sports division and well over a hundred athletes- even a number as large as one hundred is an understatement. With the piles of school work and extracurricular activities devouring our time, how can we remain updated on our school’s sports teams even when we are absent from the events themselves?

For years, Township Scores- the social media account for all FTHS sports-related content helmed by a new senior every year- has done a great job at updating students consistently on which teams are ahead of the competition. Recently, however, a group of students has attempted to extend the ideas of Township Scores and get a better grasp on getting out the news for the current standings of every sports team by taking one of FTHS’ oldest standing unknown student organizations and attempting to make it big. The group known as the “Bleacher Creatures” keeps expanding by the days and their presence just keeps filling the bleachers with larger numbers.

The term “Bleacher Creature” has been getting thrown around within Township more than any other year that I have attended the school. What is a Bleacher Creature, you may ask? That is exactly what I wanted to know.

The Bleacher Creatures have actually been an organization of students within FTHS for years now, but it’s most recent leading students have been taking it in a new direction, hoping to expand what initially started out as a small group of underdogs looking to help update Township Scores as much as they possibly could during each of our school sports events. They have transformed into a larger open party; a party that has actively attempted to increase both the physical and digital appearances of FTHS sports more than any other prior class in recent years. To find more information, I sought out members of the group and asked them several questions about the organization.

Below is the Q&A I had with long-time active Bleacher Creature, Drew Nicolosi, a current senior who helps run the organization.

Q: What is a “Bleacher Creature” and who are the students behind this?
Drew: A Bleacher Creature is a patriot, a supporter of our school’s athletics programs and part of the active audience that FTHS retains at it’s events. The Bleacher Creatures of FTHS have had several leaders throughout the years with students taking initiative to support our sports teams by showing up to the games. Nick Elimanco took initiative when he took over Township Scores and asked myself as well others such as Josh Milchman, Seth Meisner, and Sean Humphrey to help. What is most important is that there are no leaders- it’s just a way of organizing students at our school to come to every sports game they can in order to show their school pride. It has lead to some of the best times I ever had in my life so far.

Q: What exactly makes it different from that of Township Scores? Is it an extension to Township Scores?
Drew: As for Township Scores, it’s not all that different. We just work together to try to spread the word about our extracurricular activities and support our school. It is sort of, but not really an extension to Township Scores. At its core, we are a group trying to gain the athletes more support.

Q: Is Bleacher Creatures a club students can join or is it just a student project or organization to help all of our school athletes?

Drew: Bleacher Creatures are not a club. It is an organization of students that can be joined by either showing up at our school’s sports games or following us on social media. There is no contact necessary. Just show up to games with some pride and be loud. We need everyone we can get!

Q: What platforms can Bleacher Creatures be followed on?
Drew: The Bleacher Creatures have a Twitter account that is @FTHSbleach2019 and are on remind 101 (text 81010 and type @bleache). With these accounts we try to provide sports reminders for students as often as possible.

Q: Can people join the team behind these accounts or is it closed to a specific few?
Drew: The large majority of students cannot operate the accounts, but they can help us send out tweets and reminds before, during, and even after each game. For the social media accounts, it gets handed down every year to a senior to be so they can organize their whole grade when we graduate. If you come to a game and you hear us cheering you are more than welcome to join right in on the fun.

Q: Are there any plans to expand platforms in the future (Instagram, Facebook etc.) assuming it continues to do as expected?
Drew: As a group and as a school, I believe we just want more and more presence at our sports games to show support. However, we can do that. We are open to all ears.

Q: Are all FTHS sports teams being tracked or just a select few?
Drew: As Bleacher Creatures, we try to get people to come to the games based off the schedule that township scores gives us. We try our best to show up to every sport that FTHS provides to show support and a voice in the stands. We are trying to cover all sports. Currently, fall sports were in season. As each season moves on, we will focus on the sports of the next season.

Q: How can students help?
Drew: The students are everything with the Bleacher Creatures. There are no leaders or anyone that call shots. We are a family and we work together to be the craziest loudest fan section ever.

To find the Bleacher Creatures themselves, just simply show up at any of the upcoming games featuring our home teams. To keep up with your latest school sports updates you can follow Bleacher Creatures on Twitter using the link below or for text message reminders, text @bleache to 81010.

https://twitter.com/FTHSbleach2019