As the Broncos kick off football season, fans from the student section, band, and spirit squads are getting hyped for one of the most memorable parts of the school year. Though some students show school spirit by participating in sports, extracurriculars, and filling the stadium, others have learned to use their talents to support their peers in a unique way.
Caden Bartek, 12, is the president of audio visual club. When he’s not working, studying, or balancing his busy schedule, the Mizzou commit is at every possible sports event. Throughout the event he records the team. After the game he spends all night editing the videos into montages for social media. It is safe to say that his content is not overlooked by the student body.
“Directly after the games I go home, I don’t sleep, I don’t eat, and I immediately start editing. I’m not sure people really understand how long it takes to edit the videos. Some nights I have spent staying up until 4 a.m. just editing… I then have to go do homework and take care of myself and be with my family, I’m doing what I love and that is enough to motivate me,” Bartek said
Bartek has affected students of all different backgrounds with his work and inspires them to work hard.
“I see the edits on Instagram and they’re really exciting. They make me look forward to play at the football games,” Keaton Pecenka, 11 said.
Pecenka is a third year band member and has noticed exponential growth in the size of the student section. Along with school growth, and other causes, he credits the sudden boom of student involvement to Bartek’s edits.
“Our student section was great last year. We even had a lot of involvement from the people that were there, but ever since his videos got popular we had to cut down the space cut out for the band because so many people were showing up to the football games and they already filled the student section,” Pecenka said.
Though many parents and students photograph or record the games, Barteks’ are a hit amongst the student body. Many students share their love for his posts by reposting and liking his content. The videos are encouraging and a great advertisement for the sports teams, especially football, according to Pecenka.
“Band is way more fun when we have fans to play for. It also makes us push ourselves to do better and work harder,” Pecenka said.
Though Barteks shorts have mostly consisted of sports clips, he plans to expand his coverage to clubs and non-athletic extracurricular activities. His goal with his videos is to encourage student involvement and help shape a generation that is passionate about what they do.
Find Barteks content on Instagram @caden_bartek24, and the other content he is involved in can be found on the SPUB and video production linktree, through the SPUB and video production instagram account. (@shhsspub_vp).
