Tag Archives: Cheer

Women’s Distance Team Cheer

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General Information about Item:

  • Verbal lore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: CP
  • Date Collected: 10/10/21

Informant Data:

  • CP is a female Dartmouth student in the class of 2015. While at Dartmouth, she was a part of the Dartmouth cross country and track teams, competing as a distance athlete for her 4 years of college. CP was originally from Los Angeles but she now lives in the Bay Area and works as an engineer for a medical device startup company.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Before every cross country race or track meet begins, many teams will huddle together and do a team cheer. Not every team has to do it, but it is a very common practice. This will often be done on the starting line a few minutes before the starting gun goes off as a final team send off. Additionally, the words of the cheer can range widely between each team. 
  • Social Context: CP explained how this cheer was used by her team as a way to pump everyone up before a race. Something that is important to note about cross country races is that team scores are calculated by adding up the finishing place of the top 5 athletes for each team. In order to go to more important national meets, teams as a whole must do well, not just individuals on the team. Therefore, team cohesiveness is extremely important in cross country. This is why CP explains that this cheer brings the team together and reminds everyone that they are not alone and instead are working together, even though they may be running alone throughout the course of the race.

Item:

  • The women’s team cheer was: “Who wears the black and white and green? Who is the best you’ve ever seen? What describes us best? Team. Go who? Go green!”

Associated audio recording:

Transcript:

AB: Ok do you want to just give a little bit of background like who you are, where you are from, your relation to Dartmouth, and that kind of stuff?

CP: Sure! Um, my name is CP. I was a Dartmouth ‘15, since then I have graduated and live in Bay Area, working. But, when I was at Dartmouth I was on the cross country and track teams, which I think is what we will be talking about today.

AB: Perfect. Ok, and then, let’s see. Yeah so do you want to just give me, like just say this piece of folklore that you’ve told me about?

CP: Sure! Um, yeah so when I was on the Dartmouth cross country team, um, I was on the women’s team and before every race that we had, we had a special cheer that we would say before we started racing. And that cheer, it went, “Who wears the black and white and green, who is the best you’ve ever seen, what describes us best, team. Go who? Go green!” and we would kind of alternate who said each part, but yeah. We would do that before every race and that was over my full four years on the team.

AB: Perfect. And is there anything, you know, that you can say about how this made you feel; how this got you pumped up for races; anything like that?

CP: Yeah, I definitely think this was kind of a way to pump the whole team up, just kind of like encourage everyone, get everyone excited, and get everyone in the–in the mood, um, ready for the race. And I think a lot of running cross country is about being on a team and you’re working together, you know, it’s very team-oriented. So even though you are running on your own, I think it’s, um, all the points are collectively put together as your team and that’s really how you go far in that sport. So, um, I think, yeah doing the cheer really kind of just brings you all together and makes you feel more like “yeah I’m not on my own here, I am with the rest of my team here” and really gets you ready to race.

AB: Perfect! Okay, thank you so much!

CP: Yeah, no problem.

Informant’s Comments:

  • This cheer was used before most races and over the course of all of CP’s years at Dartmouth.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The Dartmouth women’s cross country team cheer has changed in recent years since CP attended Dartmouth. However, the use of a team cheer to bring the team together pre-race is the same.
  • This is a piece of verbal folklore, since it is something that was said by the women’s team before each race.

Collector’s Name: Abby Brazil

Program Cheer

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GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE ITEM:

  • Customary Folklore – Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: United States
  • Informant: Derek Willson
  • Date Collected: 11/10/19

INFORMANT DATA:

  • Derek Paul Willson is an active member of the Dartmouth Men’s Ultimate Frisbee B Team, known by its name, Discomfort Trolly; commonly known as Disco Troll. He is a member of the class of 2022, and he has been playing frisbee since his freshman fall at Dartmouth in 2018. Born on December 17, 2000, he is from Skylerville, NY. His favorite frisbee throwing technique is the hammer throw.

CONTEXTUAL DATA:

Cultural Context: 

  • The program cheer is a cheer that players across all teams know. This is taught to the rookies at the end of their first year at the program banquet and performed when the program is together at mixed games and tournaments. Additionally it is performed before big games on individuals teams (i.e. men’s and women’s). There are several rules for performing the program cheer, including requirements that one must either have their hat off or be wearing it backwards and a requirement that everyone must be holding the same frisbee while the cheer is performed. The program cheer is also a secret, known only to the members of the frisbee team.

Social Context: 

  • This ritual was documented in a one-on-one interview in Novack. This item of folklore brings the whole program together because it is unique to frisbee. Unlike ultimate frisbee sideline cheers, which often vary across teams, the program cheer is something the entire program knows. Additionally, it fosters a sense of community within class years because, other than one night a year for banquet, one is only permitted to to discuss the cheer with students in your class year. If a class is unable to memorize and piece together the program cheer during the school year, they must wait until banquet to speak to upperclassmen about it.

ITEM: 

  • Program Cheer

Recording

TRANSCRIPT: 

  • “Ok so the Program Cheer, we only really talk about it at Program Banquet at the end of the year unless you’re with other people of your class year. During it you’re supposed to have the program disc, have your hat off or backwards and have one thumb on the disc and if there’s too many people you have to touch someone who’s touching it [the disc]. It’s always funny with first years or rookies because they don’t know any of it cause you only really learn it at banquet unless somehow some other rookie knows it. You kinda just like AAAAAAA [screams] through the whole thing because you have no idea what it is. That’s always a funny thing.”

INFORMANT’S COMMENTS:

  • “It’s something that brings classes closer together because you can only talk about the words of it with members of your own class”

COLLECTOR’S COMMENTS: 

  • This cheer is standard in many ways but has a few particular points that make it unique. The fact that freshmen are not allowed to know the lyrics until the Banquet their freshman year makes this cheer an initiation ritual. Specifically, learning the cheer could be described as a rite of transition or incorporation – making the switch from a partial to a full fledged team member.
  • Because the cheer is known and performed only by upperclassmen, it holds an exclusionary aspect. Only once a team member is granted the privilege and knowledge for the cheer does the member achieve full status as a frisbee team player. Prior to the rookies learning it, they are told to scream and yell whenever it is performed so they are unable to learn it throughout the year.
  • Because the cheer is a secret, we were not able to document the words to it. However, even though we are unable to record the cheer itself, we can still analyze the context in which it is performed and the social and cultural dynamics around its performance, which we have done here. The surrounding dynamics of the cheer are very informative to frisbee culture despite the fact that we cannot know the cheer itself.
  • There is not really any pattern or meaning to the nonsensical cheer/noise made by those who do not know the cheer lyrics. The only purposes of the noise made is to contribute to the overall volume and intensity of the cheer as well as make it harder to hear the actual cheer lyrics to prevent outsiders from learning the words

COLLECTOR’S NAME: 

  • Luke Cuomo and Annett Gawerc

 

Kipsalana Cheer

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Title: Kipsalana Cheer

General Information about Item:

  • Customary: Verbal, Cheers
  • English
  • United States of America

Informant Data:

  • Robert Purvis was born on May 27th, 1997 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He got into swimming because his two sisters were swimmers and inspired him to start. He started swimming year round at age 6 at his local club, the Boys and Girls Club of Northern Westchester. He is now a sophomore at Dartmouth and is a butterfly specialist on the varsity swim team.

Contextual Data:

  • Robert learned this cheer from his captains within his first month on the team. It is taught to all incoming freshmen on the team. This is a video of the team after practice teaching the freshman the day before their first met.

Item:

  • The men’s team cheer reads as follows

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Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Informant’s Comments:

  • “No one knows what this cheer means anymore or where it originated from. I once spoke to a ’76 about it and he said the same thing, that no one knew the origin or meaning of the cheer.”

Collector’s Name: Robert Purvis

Tags/Keywords:

  • folklore, swimming, water sports, men’s swimming, cheer, verbal, customary, ritual

“Skate Low, Score High”

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Title: “Skate Low, Score High”

General Information about Item:

  • Folklore: Verbal – slogan, good luck wish
  • Language: English
  • Origin: United States

Informant Data:

  • Sarah Harris was born in 1996 in Chicago, Illinois. When she was 3 years old, her parents signed her up for skating lessons. Skating was an integral part of her childhood, as she skated 6 days a week. She competed in many skating competitions during middle school and high school. Currently, Sarah is pursuing a History and Government major at Dartmouth. She is also on the Dartmouth Figure Skating Club.

 

Social Context/Cultural Context:

  • The phrase “Skate low, score high” is a reference to one of the team-based events during a specific skating competition that the Dartmouth Figure Skating Club had participated in in the past. In every competition, there are three team-based events (low, middle, and high), based on skating ability. For each event, up to five skaters from the team perform up to 6 elements in total. At the specific competition that took place in the past, Dartmouth’s “Low” team, consisting of 4 skaters, scored first place, thus giving birth to the slogan “Skate low, score high,” referring to the “low” team “scoring first place.” Since that competition, the saying “skate low, score high” has been adopted by the team and is said by skaters to to fellow team members who are about to get onto ice for an event at a competition as a way of saying good luck.
  • This piece of folklore was collected during an interview about DFSC with Sarah at Dartmouth College’s King Arthur Cafe inside Baker Library.

 

Item: “Skate Low, Score High!”

DFSC's "Low Team" which won 1st place multiple times at competitions, coining the phrase "Skate Low, Score HIgh"

DFSC’s “Low Team” which won 1st place multiple times at competitions, coining the phrase “Skate Low, Score High”

Audio Clip:

Transcript of audio:

  • “People also said, uhm, ‘skate low, score high,’ which is a reference to the low team event and them winning that often.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • When asked on her interpretation of the phrase, she responded that the phrase is another way of saying good luck and motivate the team.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Sarah mentioned how the phrase “skate low, score high” is comparable to a good luck wish. In a way, it is similar to magic spell in the sense that skaters evoke and remember the past success they’ve had during a certain competition and subsequently try to channel that success that success into the present performance.

Collectors: Yun Yue Chen and John Gilmore

Tags/Keywords:

“Skate low, score high,” Dartmouth Figure Skating

Club Swimming Team Cheer

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  1. Title: Dartmouth Club Swimming Team Cheer
  2. Informant: Sierra Levene, 19, Female.  Sierra grew up in Wyoming and currently attends Dartmouth College where she is a freshman.  She just began swimming competitively on the Dartmouth College Club swim team this year.  When interviewed, Sierra discussed various aspects of swimming that were difficult to understand when she first joined the swim team.  This included etiquette and proper behavior at swim meets, as well as phrases and expressions that make up a unique “language of swimming.”
  3. Customary: Ritual, Verbal
  4. Language: English
  5. Country of Origin: United States
  6. Social / Cultural Context:Sierra recounted her experience of going to the Club Swimming Championship Meet at Harvard University.  She explained how at the beginning of the meet, all of the teams get together to perform a cheer.

  7. (Only Audio)

  8. Transcript: ““We all kinda just got together and they were like “alright just make sure you know what race you’re in, and then we had a cheer, and they were like ‘good luck.’”
  9. Informant’s comments: Sierra explained that a team cheer was always done at the beginning of a meet.  All the teams took turns saying their cheer on the pool deck, and would form a circle when they did.
  10. Collector’s comments: Saying a team cheer before the beginning of a meet in the ways Sierra described are a common ritual of competitive swimming.
  11. Tags/Keywords: Ritual, Cheer