Every year the seniors try to create their own cheer to be remembered by, however, most of the classes walk out on graduation day without creating one that sticks. The cheers the students chant in the cheering section today are still around because of a few reasons; they sound cool and it gets everyone loud and excited. As simple as it sounds, creating a cheer everyone likes is not an easy task, the last time a cheer stuck was about four years ago when the seniors from the class of ‘09 created the now infamous “Nani Nani”. Maybe this is why many times the seniors end up not even creating a cheer to be carried on when they’re gone. We asked senior Max Mazza his thoughts on how tough it can be to create a cheer and he said, “It is extremely hard, there’s not many sayings you can create that everyone will want to cheer. But I think that makes the cheers more special when they do create one”. But this year is different, the seniors weren’t about to walk out the doors of Elder leaving the cheering section with the same cheers as the year before with nothing new. They were set on creating a cheer that sounded great but that also had a deeper meaning behind it that everyone would love. And that’s just what they did. Right before the 2012-2013 football season started the coaches created a shirt for the football team which had the phrase, “Shoulder to shoulder, side by side” on the front. This phrase set the foundation for the cheer which would finally be known as, “Shoulder to Shoulder”. The cheer starts off in a soft voice saying “shoulder to shoulder, side by side, yeah we got that Panther pride” as the students sway back in forth locked by their shoulders. As the cheer grows on it gets louder and louder until it’s to the point of screaming and jumping as everyone is yelling the cheer. It’s nothing short of amazing. We asked junior Austin Cipriani his thoughts on the cheer and he said, “It’s a really cool cheer, I love when I’m out on the field and hear the cheering section doing it”. The students aren’t the only ones who love the cheer, it seems the teachers like it as well. Not only does it sound cool when the students are doing it but the words have a deeper meaning. It shows how that every student at Elder carries around the pride of Elder on their shoulders everywhere they go. It’s not only a cheer to make you look over and watch, but it’s also a cheer that will send chills through your body. This is exactly what happened when the whole cheering stood at the goal line on Friday night when the Panthers played the St. X Bombers. Every student stood there locked by their shoulders saying the cheer right before the game. The whole stadium was quiet as the crowd sat there and saw the cheering section screaming the cheer, it was phenomenal. When the cheer was over the students stormed across the field to the stands, and that was what really cemented the cheer into the Elder Tradition. The cheer is so popular it might still be the cheer our future kids will be cheering as they run out onto the field. We will have to wait and see but the future looks bright for this amazing product of the class of ‘13.