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Schools

The Tribe Brings School Spirit to Absegami

It began during the softball playoffs last year and has continued through the football season.

It started last spring, school supervisor Stephen Fortis noted during Monday night's Greater Egg Regional Board of Education meeting.

A couple of teachers approached him about improving school spirit at Absegami High School. They wanted to see more students supporting each other more by attending more events.

Up to that point, a majority of the people who had been attending the sporting events had been primarily parents, "but not a lot of kids," Fortis explained.

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It wasn't too long after that that they were able to get a group of students, which they are calling "the Tribe." The Tribe is not made up solely of student-athletes, although many of them are.

However, "a lot of people at school aren't into sports," football player Michael Ottaviano said. Noting, "it's not all about sports," the student athlete said that the concept behind the group is "we want everyone to be excited."

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They wanted to see more school spirit among the students.

Morgan Kirner, who serves on Absegami's Forensic Team and is a member of the drama club has been there since the inception of the Tribe.

She was on that first bus trip that took place in the spring. The bus trip was to an NJSIAA Group IV South playoff softball game on June 1 that sent the Braves to Voorhees to play Eastern Regional. The Braves won, advancing the team to the finals against Washington Township.

"It was such a blast," Kirner said of the game against Eastern. "We had way more fans than they did."

Absegami principal Jeri-Lyn Gatto said that school officials at Eastern were concerned at first when the additional busload of students showed up.

However, when they saw how well the group turned out, and how supportive the students were of the softball team, Gatto was again approached, this time after the game, and was asked if Eastern could "borrow" the group of students for its next game.

Word about the Tribe spread. By the time the softball team arrived for the NJSIAA Group IV South finals against Washington Township, the Gloucester County-based high school had even more fans than Absegami did.

The team lost that game, which was a disappointment, students said but school officials said that the Tribe didn't end there. A pep rally was held at the beginning of football season. Similar pep rallies will be held at the beginning of each new season, Fortis said.

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