Like any end to the school year, last spring saw the election and promotion of juniors and underclassmen to various leadership positions within the school. These included becoming a captain on a sports team or president of a club, to provide the following year with stability and leadership from those most qualified, and most experienced. 

One of the more closely followed appointments within the school is who will become the Rowdies Presidents for the following year, which is traditionally announced at the end-of-year sports banquet. While a banquet or gathering of any type could not be held last spring, the Rowdies wasted no time to announce via Twitter who would be leading the student section this year: seniors Jack Jordan, Owen Petersen, Gray Andrews and Will Bradford.

For those not well versed in RJR lingo, the Rowdies is the official name for the Reynolds student section, led by Presidents who start chants, create themes and announce Reynolds sports through Twitter (and the intercom to many teachers’ dismay). 

“Rowdies Presidents are tasked with creating a crowd for athletic events, making the crowd go crazy, chanting and being the loudest in the stands,” president Will Bradford said.

The start to the year, however, is nothing like we have seen before. Teams are not playing, students are learning from home and while the Rowdies would normally be leading the student section at football games every Friday night, they are stuck at home counting down the first competition date set for November 16th.

With the announcement of Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools (WSFCS) to go virtual the first nine weeks of school, some decided it would be best to transfer. Among them was incumbent Rowdies President, Jack Jordan, who now attends Forsyth Country Day School.

“I left RJR because of the uncertainty of the upcoming school year,” Jordan said. “I thrive in a normal school environment and sitting behind a computer is not the best learning environment for me.” 

The vacancy that resulted from Jordan leaving had to be filled and was ultimately named by the Rowdies to their one thousand Twitter followers on September 11th. In their tweet, they asked everyone to welcome new Rowdies President “DJ ‘The Don’ Mensh.” 

“[Jack transferring] led to an open position in the Rowdies and DJ was chosen by last year’s presidents,” Bradford said. “DJ was chosen because of his notorious vocals at basketball and soccer games and his ability to get a crowd fired up.”

For Mensh, it was a great honor to be selected to take Jordan’s place and he looks forward to the sports seasons this year. For him, there is a close link between teams’ success and support from their peers.

“It is definitely cool and I’m excited for when we are going to be able to lead the actual student section, whenever that will be,” Mensh said. “We have a good group of senior athletes and hopefully we can bring success to RJR sports this year.”

While Jordan will be greatly missed, it is clear that last year’s Rowdies found a great replacement for him in Mensh, who is confident his experience with sports will make him a great leader of the student section.

“I think me being very involved with sports around the city is something I bring to the table, because I grew up playing with or against a lot of the athletes that we will be playing against,” Mensh said. “I think it was the right choice because of my background.”

There is still a great deal up in the air as to whether spectators can attend sporting events, and what role the Rowdies will have this year as officials decide upon public safety protocols. However, it appears this is a bright spot for Reynolds Athletics, for what up to this point has been a very gloomy start to the school year.