A few weeks ago, the Placer girls volleyball teams faced Colfax’s girls volleyball teams with Placer winning all three games.  There was a lot of hype before and after the win, but have Placer sports teams gotten cocky by thinking that they are the best of the best?

Every school thinks they are the best at what they do, while Placer may be great at many things, some people might observe that Placer students have begun to display a little bit of arrogance with our team sports.
With 18 different sports at Placer High; there is a lot to be proud of. One has to wonder what the students from other schools think when they come to our school and see the booming crowds at something such as a home football game.

Junior Allicen Goodrich commented when asked about the so-called arrogance of Placer, “We can be arrogant with certain schools like, center or foothill; but that is because we always beat them. When it comes to schools that give us a challenge we usually don’t say too much.”
When asked about whether she feels the volleyball team is cocky, Senior Erin Ellner said, “we’re not too cocky, we’re just confident in our team.  Like we talk before a game, but what school doesn’t? Whenever we do talk, we always back it up and come out on top.”
Junior Stephanie Sykora observed, “It’s okay to be a little cocky but there is a line not to cross when having school spirit, there is a lot of tension built between the teams the week before the game; then when the game comes everyone just wants to fight in order to get out all the anger and tension that was built up over the past few days.”
Two Fridays ago, Placer played Bear River in football. During the games, mainly the varsity game which the Hillmen won 10-6, a few fights were started between students.  Some were taken to the parking lot while others were either broken up by police or people talking sense into the students planning to fight each other. This may be because some people from other schools think Placer’s athletes were being “cocky” and “thinking they’re better than everybody”, but truthfully, there was smack talk coming in strength from both sides.
When asked about his involvement in any fights at games, Junior Mason Lenover said, “I get into some fights, most are taken care of by the police at the game. But I have fought in some fights this year.” The Auburn police department has been called to almost every football game this season whether it be a home or away game.
Lenover commented on the other sports games for past years as well, saying, “it’s mainly football games where all the fights happen, like there are people yelling at each other games but mostly fights will usually happen at the football games”

There may be some level of truth to the idea that Placer has have gotten a little cocky over the past year, but there is no reason to say that’s a bad thing. It is a  good thing to have major school spirit and to show that we think we’re good where it’s true, as long as it doesn’t go too far and result in problems between students from Placer and other schools.