The life of the student section – 14 guys who go to every football game and bring the school spirit with them.

They only have one goal.

“Hype the crowd up and get a good atmosphere,” said senior Tate Rusher, who is the paint gang co-leader with Knowlyn Egan.

All of them have a letter that spells out “Derby Panthers!”

Then they have a player’s number and last name painted on their backs, even one for coach Brandon Clark – “Daddy Clark” with the number 0.

The group gets painted at the pregame tailgate parties, which helps them get fired up.

“The tailgates are probably our main traditions because every single game we have a tailgate,” senior Isaak Bowman said.

A traditional start to the game is the group getting into a circle and then jumping around screaming.

But getting into the paint gang is no small feat.

“The leader from the year before picked a group of guys to be the upcoming year’s paint gang¨ senior Ike Bowman said. 

Rusher added: “You get picked also by just being popular.”

The worst part of being on the paint gang is when the weather gets cold, after all they aren’t wearing shirts.

“The football players sometimes put Vaseline on them to stay warm,” senior Braedon Alverson said. “I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m planning to this year.” 

In the student section they usually have signs made and chants they make up to help hype the student section up.

“Well we get the students section hype as we can we do chants and say other things to get people going” said Bowman.

The girls get the spotlight for the night. Last fridays pink out football game A group of girls took over for the paint boys. 

“Me and all the girls were so excited to lead the student section and had been looking forward to it for over a month” Senior sara portela said.