From Friday night football games to girls cross country meets, the Dawg Pound at Naperville North can do it all. The students involved commit to countless hours of planning themes, curating crazy costumes and rallying the crowds.

This 2015-2016 senior leaders of the Dawg Pound are Zach Benaitis, Ryan Boswell, Bryce Dunlap, Emory Griffin, Maddie Krejci and Matt Pillatsch.

After being part of the Dawg Pound as underclassmen and attending several meetings, Benaitis aspired to spend his Friday nights piloting the student section.

“The first time I saw the Dawg Pound I knew I wanted to be a part of it,” Benaitis said. “But I wanted to be something more than that. I wanted to be a leader.”

Many students have been in the roaring Dawg Pound at some point during their high school experience, but only a select few have earned the privilege to lead cheers and organize activities.

Besides standing in the front of the crowd, decked out in that night’s theme, the Dawg Pound leaders have many responsibilities. For each game, there must be a unanimous vote between all six leaders before a theme can be approved.

Pillatsch said he thinks the camaraderie between the Dawg Pound leaders makes it easy to suggest new ideas without harsh criticism.

“If one of us comes to the table with a good idea, we are able to develop it to something that we are all proud of,” Pillatsch said.

One of the hardest part of being a Dawg Pound leader is getting more people to come to each sporting event. Amidst coming up with a clever and fun theme and creating cheers to excite everyone, the job is never easy. Boswell said he is constantly brainstorming ways to increase student turnout while representing the school well.

“The most important thing about creating a theme is making sure it is school appropriate. But the second important detail is that your classmates will like it.” Boswell said. “You could have a theme idea you’ve been thinking of since freshman year, but if it doesn’t improve the game’s attendance, it won’t benefit the team.”

Although being a Dawg Pound leader is a big time commitment, Pillatsch said it can be very rewarding to look back and see hundreds of students supporting the Huskies.

“Dawg pound is a great way for the underclassmen and upperclassmen to interact,” Pillatsch said. “It’s a great feeling to have everyone join together and represent our school.”