“Demon Pride” as a student means showing school spirit, supporting peers by showing up to events, participating in school activities, and proudly representing Bismarck High School.
When students walk into Bismarck High, a sense of pride, tradition, and school spirit is felt. It is important that the students and teachers feel the demon pride throughout the building.
“Demon pride is something that can’t be forced on you. When you walk into this building, you can’t help but feel the tradition and the history in the building. With the success and history we have, you can’t help but feel it,” BHS 2007 graduate and current teacher Jordan Wilhelm said.
Recently at sporting events, there has been a lack of support in BHS student sections. This is quite the opposite of how Bismarck High used to be in its 150 year history.
“High school is changing. I go to events now, and there isn’t as big of student sections as there used to be. I remember my freshman and sophomore year, there was a group called the “kaarlgard crazies.” It was chaos. There were so many people that would fill up the stands. It was a lot of fun to be at those events,” 2016 graduate and current teacher Landon DeKrey said.
Looking up in the stands as an athlete and seeing a huge student section can make the players feel supported, giving a sense of pride, motivation, and a boost of adrenaline. This can benefit the athlete to perform at the best of their abilities. It also benefits the students who show up to support. It is a great way to bond with peers while supporting the school.
“My hope and my goal would be that at Bismarck High we learn to support all of the programs, whether its sports, choir, band, or the school plays,” Wilhelm said.
To support these events, structure needs to be created by upperclassmen. This requires showing acceptance and shedding the demon pride off onto the younger kids.
“I think there has to be strong student leaders. It takes an upperclassmen to be vocal about it and approach it the right way. When you have a senior class that isn’t accepting of the underclassmen then you’re not going to have good support at a game,” Wilhelm said. “I would just push our upperclassmen to be supportive, and encourage people to come and help them understand how they can impact the game.”
Being a demon means wearing maroon proudly.
“Demon pride to me is a lifestyle, it means that you represent maroon, and you represent a tougher mentality than the other two schools,” DeKrey said. “There is a lot of tradition here and I would say it’s about living out the traditions from all of the amazing people who have graduated this school. Everyone knew BHS as being that frontliner school. We were always competing for state championships in all of our sports.”
Being a demon is all about showing ones pride for the school. It is time that the student body starts showing up to all activities to represent Bismarck High and show support to the students that participate in these events.
