Chris Yingling | Echo
Taylor traditions are sort of a big deal.
While the Big Three (Silent Night, Airband and Taylathon) garner most of the attention on campus, the newest Taylor tradition shone last weekend. Saturday was the third bi-annual Wes-Del Apocalypse, held during a football game between the Warriors of Wes-Del High School and the South Adams Starfires.
Last fall, three Taylor students saw an ad for a Wes-Del game on their way home. Out of this grew the campus-wide Wes-Del Apocalypse. Taylor students caravan to Wes-Del high school in Gaston, Indiana. While Taylor students have no particular tie to the school, they come for one reason: to cheer the Warriors to victory.
The student-led event has changed in leadership during the last year. While only two students chaired last year's basketball game, a Wes-Del Council of seven formed to lead Saturday's festivities.
With funding from meal transfers and a few out-of-pocket expenses, the Wes-Del Council put on a successful tailgating event which included many Taylor students, in addition to some of the arriving Wes-Del students.
"That's what broke the ice," said senior council member Landon Stuart. "We invited them to have some food and eat with us. We broke out the maroon body paint, started helping each other out and, like that, we became one student section."
The Wes-Del athletic department and administrative staff went out of their way to welcome the Taylor population for the football game. A donor in contact with the high school provided #WesDelApocalypse towels for Taylor and Wes-Del students to whirl around throughout the night's competition.
And the madness ensued.
It was a crazy evening for students from both schools. Students danced the night away with cheers such as the banana peel and the Wes-Del fight song. Twenty-two shirtless men emblazoned with "!Wes-Del Warriors!#KO" in maroon and white body paint danced around the sideline like lunatics, cheering on the Warriors.
The cheering and romping wasn't enough to secure a victory. Wes-Del met their match, losing 20-12 to South Adams. However, junior council member Steve Lancaster thinks that this Wes-Del Apocalypse was the most successful so far.
"Our goal is to open doors between Taylor and Wes-Del," Lancaster said. "This isn't about just two events a year where we go and have fun at a high school. It's about creating a relationship with the students and giving them something to look forward to."
According to Stuart and Lancaster, the attendance at Wes-Del athletic events since the first Apocalypse has skyrocketed. The morale of students heading into game day has seen a significant increase and athletes seem more pumped to play.
And it's not stopping at athletics.
The Wes-Del Council is making an effort to increase Wes-Del/Taylor interaction outside of the Apocalypse. Small groups, Young Life and lunch interactions are in the works between the administration at Wes-Del and the Taylor council members.
"We want this to continue," Stuart said. "Once we're gone, we want there to be a partnership between the two schools that will continue to last."
Although the spring Apocalypse has yet to be scheduled, there's one thing that we know for sure: the Wes-Del Apocalypse is here to stay.
