The student section, nicknamed the Catpound, was ranked 6th in the state for football and 5th for basketball by the Student Section Report 2024. It is a sight that is hard to miss at games, bleachers packed with students dressed to theme cheering for the Wildcats. Each year charismatic students are picked to lead the Catpound, who are front and center at games.
On the sidelines are Jennifer Friedmann and Braden Leuthauser, the staff sponsors of the Catpound. Friedmann started her career at EHS in 2017 as the principal’s secretary.
“It was my first year here, and I was excited to learn that I could work events because that’s where you get to see kids doing their thing,” Friedmann said.
Friedmann’s love for football inspired her to work the varsity football games.
“It was more of a supervisory role to start with where you just, like, make sure the chants are appropriate and make sure nobody’s getting hurt or crowd surfing or anything like that,” Friedmann said.
Working games and supervising the Catpound led Friedmann to join former teacher Brent Pearson as the official staff sponsors.
“We would decorate the Catpound. I would get some kind of giveaway like poms or rally towels,” Friedman said. “It evolved to where we worked with student leaders to pick
themes for Friday night football and basketball games.”
Friedmann continued to make the Catpound exciting for students after Pearson accepted a position in another building.
“The Catpound grew to be with student leaders who are more involved, and the social media kind of kicked off. And you have the Catpound TikTok and Instagram, and it gets more attention and increases school spirit,” Friedman said.
The Catpound sponsors also try to coordinate themes with the football and basketball boosters clubs, which allows students to support and raise donations for charities or to invest back into the school.
“We had a couple kids come forward that said that they were interested in being Catpound leaders. So when we went to our first football game they were just incredible, they kind of emerged naturally,” Friedman said.
These leaders then communicate throughout the week and share their ideas that Friedmann makes reality.
After being the only official staff sponsor of the Catpound, when EHS graduate Braden Leuthauser was hired, his outgoing personality was recognized and he joined Friedmann as a sponsor. .
“This year, I really wanna learn and get my feet wet. I can come up with a bunch of themes, but I want the students to lead it, and I want it to be on them,” Leuthauser said.
Leuthauser thinks he can help come up with trending ideas he sees on social media. He has actively been communicating with the student leaders by sending out reminders to ensure the sponsors have enough time to make arrangements.
When looking in the Catpound for future student leaders, Leuthauser looks for a few specific things.
“Someone that’s outgoing and kind. They wanna be involved, just that bubbly personality that people want to be around. I think leaders that are fun and excited to be there will bring more people and hopefully freshmen,” Leuthauser said.
Sponsors do an amazing job keeping the sportsmanship and safety in the Catpound, but inevitably things happen. During Friedmann’s first year at an away football game at Lindbergh High School, there was an incident.
“I absolutely love the game of football. And I’ll be honest, sometimes I get a little distracted by the game. And I realized that that was happening that night, and I wasn’t keeping close tabs on my leaders and didn’t realize that they had taken off across the field to the other side with the flag to taunt the other team,” Friedmann said. “That still gets talked about to this day. So they’re always like, ‘do you have control over that flag’?” Friedmann said.
As a recent alumni, Leuthauser shares Friedmann’s enthusiasm for engaging and involving EHS students.
“Oh my gosh, I’m rah rah Mr. Eureka, So I thought it would be fun to help out,” Leuthauser said.