The stands begin to shake, voices fill the air, and a large piece of white tarp covers the student section. Cameras turn to catch the moment as the tarp begins to ripple from the students’ movement underneath. The tarp falls and reveals the sea of red and the cheering fans. A group of seniors stand at the front of the section jumping and yelling, holding up a whiteboard that reads, “Tiger Barber Shop.” The buzz of an electric razor faintly makes noise as the hair of a boy falls from his head as they shave it. This is the Fishers High School Tiger Cage. 

Fishers High School Tiger Cage is a group of seniors who run the student sections at sporting events. They are the ones who come up with the themes and put together the events happening during the games to keep the crowd engaged and entertained. Winning or losing, they have a job to keep up the high energy and make sure the crowd is doing the same. The 2025-2026 group contains twelve members: Jack Powell, Parker Kurtz, Ethan Luenemann, Elijah Ayugi, Cole Brownell, Breck Guffey, Anya Vaughn, Neela Reddy, Kylie Wilson, Pao Salazar, Ava Tester, and Olivia McNall.  

To be a part of Tiger Cage, you need to provide and show high energy. Senior Ava Tester, who is a part of the 2026 group, says when she saw the effects of last year’s class, she knew that was something she wanted to join. 

“Last year, I saw just the community in general, and it looked really fun,” Tester said. “And I knew people on it from last year and I thought that would be a really good way to get involved.”  

In central Indiana, high schools compete for the Banner in a competition hosted by WISH-TV Sports Director Anthony Calhoun (AC). Calhoun visits schools throughout the season, looking for the student section that shows the most energy and spirit, and at the end of the football season, he awards the Banner to the one that stands out. Last year, Fishers won and was presented as the best student section in Indiana. This year, Tiger Cage is aiming for a back-to-back win. Senior Tiger Cage Leader Pao Salazar says to achieve that goal they are coming up with fresh ideas.

“This year, we’ve been trying to not do the same things that we did last year to win it,” Salazar said, “but just trying different things that are unique that not every student section would think of doing.” 

At games, they try to attract the most attention to Fishers by doing things like making posters, hot dog eating competitions, and a lot more. At the beginning of the year, the members sold ‘theme packs’ to help encourage students to show up and participate in the theme days.  

 “We’ve been doing things that are unique to show him that we are putting in so much effort to win this banner and we are going to go back-to-back,” Salazar said.  

To be able to proceed with the goal, Tiger Cage must get school participation. When the students get involved, it can show AC that Fishers overall has collective school spirit and pride. The group has also made a purpose of getting all classes included. They plan to do this by putting themselves out there more on social media to get a chain reaction.  

 “We want to be able to get the freshmen involved,” Tester said. “That’s another one of our biggest goals, getting the underclassmen engaged with everything, too. 

The Banner competition is now in Week 4. Every week, AC will pick and post the top 8 from the week. He posts the progress and activity that each school has made. In week 3, Fishers made the Top 8 and was at the 5th spot behind HSE. The top three were Bishop Chatard, Brownsburg, and Cathedral.  

AC will be attending Friday night’s Mudsock rivalry game at Reynolds Stadium for Week 4. The theme is ‘red out,’ and Fishers will be showing Tiger pride as they take on the Hamilton Southeastern Royals at 7 p.m.

  “Show up to games, show out,” Salazar said. “I would say don’t be embarrassed to go out of your comfort zone.”