By: Kris Bunk

     Students at Eisenhower have been supporting school sporting events a lot lately, and a big reason is because of The Pig Pen, which is the Eisenhower High School student section at sporting events. The Pig Pen participates in all sports, but seems to have boys basketball, football, and volleyball as their favorites to attend. The section has themes to dress up as for every game as students scream chants and yell as loud as they can. Head boys basketball coach, Ryan Mangini, has expressed how much he loves The Pig Pen at the games this season.

     The Squire sat down with Lex Leamon an eleventh grade student at Eisenhower, who is the leader of The Pig Pen as well as the social media manager. Leamon described the fan section to The Squire, “The Pig Pen is Eisenhower’s student section that cheers for our sports teams, for football, basketball, and volleyball.” When asked and why The Pig Pen was started, Leamon explained, “As far as I’ve known, the Pig Pen has been around for a few years but was not very big. When I moved to this school, I was asked to make a pig pen Instagram account. I made it for the football team and, as of now, it’s used for basketball and volleyball as well.” The students seem to really bring their school spirit to the county rivalry games and the big region games for the school’s teams. Leamon added, “The students can get involved by actually doing the chants and showing up in theme.” The themes vary per game and themes will be chosen based who the team is playing that night.

     The Pig Pen has an Instagram, which Leamon commented on, “The students can follow the Instagram account by looking up ehspigpen_1.” Students might not know the rules or what goes on in The Pig Pen, so Leamon shared what students should know, “They should know what time the games are and the theme for that game, which they can find on the Instagram account. They should know its [the organization is] seniors front row, juniors second, and then sophomore and freshmen fill it up after that. They should also be listening for what chant we are doing.  I say the chant then everyone repeats me ONE time. Also, students should be respectful to the opponents and the referees.” The Squire thanks Lex for taking the time to sit down with us.

     The Pig Pen is known by opposing schools as being loud and rowdy. Coach Mangini has said, “The Pig Pen alone has gotten us multiple points when we have them at our games.” All teams that have the student section at their games  have nothing but praise for the fan section. If you have any pictures from The Pig Pen and you want them featured on our social medias, please send them to @EhsSquire on social media.