COLUMBUS, Ohio — Worthington Christian has found a unique way to energize their teams as the girls’ basketball team prepares to take on Waynedale (28-0) at 2 p.m. Thursday in the OHSAA semifinals.
“I am pumped. I’ve been waiting all season for this because we knew at the beginning like, our girls teams going to be good this year. They might be able to make a run and they did it,” said senior Gary Woodfin.
Woodfin is one of the leaders of the Zoo. He’s ready to cheer on the girls basketball team in the playoffs.
At this pep rally, he made sure fans had what they need for the upcoming blackout theme and more.
“I’m going to get to the game probably like 45 minutes early, so if anybody wants like body paint to like, put like a football stripe or something on their face, meet me in the parking lot and we’ll get everybody with that if you need some,” Woodfin told the crowd.
Woodfin isn’t alone in the efforts
“Just the culture that has been made like through this, especially when they named it the zoo, like when you were in elementary school and middle school really like, you always looked up the high schoolers and seniors especially, and you’re just like ‘wow, I can’t wait to be that,’” said Sam Evans.
Evans and Hobie Raikes both help Woodfin run the student section, assisting with planning, social media and communicating.
“Before every game, we’ll post what theme’s coming, kind of what to bring, what to wear obviously. Sometimes we’ll come out with new chants,” said Raikes.
Back at the rally, the energy from the Zoo wasn’t lost on seniors Blessing King and Jaeda Tagoe, thankful for the support and to see the arena get loud.
“Our team likes to play at a fast pace, so I think it just picks up the game even more, so it like, gets us more comfortable in our rhythm and how we do things,” said Tagoe.
“And we already have a lot of energy on the court, and so having that just like amps it up way more. We feed off the energy. We play better having that much energy with us,” said King.
The leaders of the Zoo said they believe the it brought their school together.
“It’s an opportunity for everybody to come together and like just make some noise to cheer on a team,” said Woodfin. “When you have a game and we can all come together and like group together and sit next to each other, cheer on the same team, do the same chants, it really can just keep a community in the school.”
