As everyone on the west side knows, the beloved high school, Mother of Mercy received news that they would be closing down for good following the conclusion of the 2017-18 school year. This sparked all kinds of emotions from pretty much everyone. A group of Elder students have seen this and decided to be there for these girls in their time of need. This said group of kids goes by the name, The Mercy Sympathizers, and is a combined group of juniors and seniors from Elder.

The group includes: Tom Feldman, Vince Sabato, Charlie Mazza, Eddie Cliffe, Tyler Schutte, Adam Hammann, Gabe Bonovita, Nick Folzenlogen, Kyle Klingenbeck, myself, and a few others. The corp four of this squad are: Tom Feldman, Charlie Mazza, Vince Sabato, and myself. Our club description is pretty simple. We just go to as many Mercy High School sporting events as possible, and bring a level of energy and intensity that is usually not seen at girls high school contests. We start cheers with the girls dads, and do our best to heckle every official out there enough to get Mercy all the calls.

Which reminds me of a fall night a few weeks back when we were all there in our spot at Western Hills High School, home of the soccer Bobcats, and we looked up the opposing teams roster and started shouting all of their names to try to distract them. The middle ref actually stopped the game and asked us to move.

It was a clear sign of how much we rattled him and the opposing girls. I think it is safe to say Mercy may be the toughest place to play simply because of the ruckus caused by the Sympathizers heckling.

I caught up with sympathizer Tom Feldman who said, “The moment I saw Allison Moellinger’s video to Ellen Degeneres asking for help. I knew I had to do something. They were reaching out to all the wrong people, and that is when the Sympathizers and I all decided to step in and do what we could to help.”

Feldman continued, “I sympathize because Panthers are the bigger cats and we need to be there for Mercy as they embark on their final year, and I have a lot of Mercy women in my life.”

Nick Maurer, a strong opposer of the Mercy Sympathizers said, “Mercy and I just do not get along, there are a lot of reasons.” Let’s just leave it at that.

Chuck Tepe told me, “I do not always sympathize, but when I do it is definitely for Mercy.”

After all, we have attended as many Mercy sporting events, and are looking forward to keeping this phase going throughout the year. The games are really fun, and great time for all of us to meet up and toss a little frisbee, and get yelled at by Mercy’s authoritarian figures.