With vibrating bleachers and roars of spirited chants breaking out from Joseph B. Good Stadium, to school events in the gymnasium to the arenas for RAM hockey, the source of this rowdy cheering is consistently coming from one place: the RHS student section, the Inferno.

The Inferno is a group of spirited students who cheer on athletic teams throughout their seasons. After years of being dormant, the Inferno is growing larger and louder due to the growing success of sports teams and more motivated students and leaders.

The past few years, attendance at sporting events was low and even with a small crowd of students, cheers were quiet and rare. However, during the 2018 fall season, students started noticing higher turnout and more energy from the Inferno, especially for varsity football who had a turnaround season ending 4-6 compared to 0-10 last year.

“The Inferno and crowd help us no doubt. We build off the energy they bring and it helps us fight through times on the field. Other schools do not bring the same crowd participation that we do for the size of our school,” varsity football coach Jason Lomax said. “We love the Inferno.”

This year, Inferno leaders have been encouraging students to attend every game for every sport. They have created a special theme for each game to make the Inferno more uniform, dressing in all black, orange, white, tie dye, pink, camouflage, Hawaiian or pajamas depending on that week’s theme.

“The Inferno is lit this year. When all of the seniors and juniors pull up to the game it really starts to get hype,” senior Neill Seminario said. “We just need to get the underclassmen to cheer and we will have the loudest and most fun student section in the county.”

Boys basketball is coming off of a division championship season and the Inferno is planning on increasing their numbers for both home and away games. To keep their energy up, the marching band will be playing at each home game this year to energize the Inferno and team.

“The Inferno is the best. I’ve coached [a basketball game] at every school in the county and there’s no doubt our student section is number one,” varsity basketball head coach Todd Dembroski said. “The Inferno helps to create an awesome atmosphere for our players to play and our coaches to coach in. They help get our team pumped up and they can get in the heads of the opposing team.”

Editor-in-Chief Emily Nagy and staff writer Jack Welch are the Inferno leaders.