Five minutes before tip-off of the final Sycamore boys basketball home game of the season against DeKalb, Curtis Swartzendruber stands on the gym floor leading the “Syco Ward,” Sycamore’s student section, in warm-ups.

Like athletes, they count to 10 for each stretch, clap twice in unison, then switching to the next stretch.

For the next 90 minutes, the group of almost 200 students – so large it spills over into an adjacent section of seats – claps, chants, yells at opponents, dances wildly to Lady Gaga music and celebrates each Spartans basket.