To students and administrators alike, the student body’s cheering section at athletic events represents Haverford’s culture of unity and support.
The “student section’s” cheers remind the crowd of these community values: “I want to be in that number/ When the Fords go marching in,” one frequent cheer says.
Sometimes, the cheering departs from pride in Haverford’s culture and jeers toward the opposition, transitioning toward a different pride: patriotism.
Repeated “USA! USA!” chants arise, and “The Star-Spangled Banner” spontaneously erupts. The student section features an American flag alongside its Haverford banner at most games.
But how does American pride become so quickly conflated with school spirit? Shouldn’t “USA!” encapsulate both the Fords and their opponents? In this analogy, has Haverford become the United States and our opponents, with whom we voted five days before EA Day, an alien element—or even an enemy?
“I just find the whole thing funny because it’s like the most unoriginal chant,” Dean of Students Mr. Luqman Kolade said. “Our team doesn’t even know we are doing it because it’s just the USA. It’s like we’re not cheering for our team anymore.”
Students, however, find that the chant fits the image and culture they wish to project.
“America is freakin’ cool to high school boys,” Sixth Former Alex Rhodes said. “I can’t give a much better answer than that. Patriotism is awesome.”
While patriotism does not equate with conservatism, recent years have shown a more outwardly patriotic American political right. As far back as 2014, the Pew Research Center reported that conservatives are “more likely” to identify as “often proud to be an American.”
Although “USA” chants were featured at the Democratic National Convention this summer, they were commonplace at Donald Trump’s rallies throughout the year.
Vocal patriotism at Haverford games reflects an ongoing trend throughout the United States. According to Axios, 26% of men aged 18-24 identify as conservative, compared to 22% as liberal. AP VoteCast said, “More than half of men under 30 supported [Donald] Trump” in the 2024 election.
The political right’s connection to patriotism is not limited to national news. During the contentious lead-up to the 2024 election, Sixth Former Mason Wiegand shared that one student, at a Haverford football game in August, moved around the student section requesting that students he identified as liberals kiss the American flag.
One facet of young men’s recent shift to the right—and, by association, toward patriotic ideals—is their reaction to the political left’s perceived criticism of masculinity.
“Leaning towards some more conservative ideas is partly an attempt to fight against what [young men] feel is a mislabeling of who they are,” Mr. Kolade said. “If society is telling boys that they’re bad for being boys…[they’ll] lean into it… Boys, just in general, always push boundaries.”
While the patriotism of the student section is presumably meant to bring the student body together, political divisiveness may split it apart.
“Being patriotic is definitely a core virtue of Haverford,” Sixth Former Matt Yerger asserted. “Whether anyone likes to admit it or not, even the slightest hint of non-patriotism will probably get you, jokingly or not, labeled as a communist.”
However, Yerger still senses that patriotism is more of a uniting force than anything else.
“It’s an identity that’s easy for us to cling to, especially at games,” he said. “Everyone in the student section, on some level, feels patriotic. I feel pride for our school when we drown out the other student section with chants of ‘USA’ or sing the national anthem so loudly that all you can hear are the off-key voices of 100 other guys.”
Sixth Former Semaj Lee agrees.
“As random and uncorrelated as it may seem, the ‘USA’ chants bring the section together,” Lee said. “No matter how you see this country, 99% of attendees of Haverford are U.S. citizens. It’s a commonality we all share and hence can get behind.”
However, as this broad commonality unites Fords, it also claims that, somehow, until the scoreboard runs out, the Fords are “better Americans” than their opponents.
“A lot of times you’re chanting in opposition to the other side, and then you do the ‘USA’ chant, which in actuality should unite everyone,” Mr. Kolade said. “It’s bizarre.”
To Mr. Kolade, patriotic chants do not directly support the school’s teams. But for many, they are not useless, unoriginal, or ineffective chants.
“While I think chanting ‘USA’ at opposing student sections is obnoxious and a quintessentially Haverford thing to do,” Yerger said, “I also don’t think our student section would be at the level it is without being unabashedly prideful of who we are as young men, as students, and as citizens of our country.”