In Skokie, ABC 7′s Friday Flyover featured Niles West students singing, creating formations, cheering, more
More than 400 Niles West High School students cheered and participated in football-field formations early Friday as the ABC 7 television station featured the Skokie school on its Friday Flyover program.
The festivities started out around 5 a.m., with some students arriving closer to 4 a.m. ABC7 reporter Diane Pathieu, who said she was a Niles West alum, conducted interviews with the A Cappella singers, football players, and Principal Jeremy Christian.
“Our students were amazing,” said Christian, who started at Niles West July 1 after previously serving as principal of Julian Middle School in Oak Park School District 97. “They were very timely, they were energetic. They brought the culture and climate that I would like to see within our school for the remainder of the school year.”
The students arranged themselves into three formations on the football field so that they would create images visible from the sky for the aerial camera. They included an “NW” formation for Niles West, a circle with a seven in it for the ABC 7 logo, and a sunrise formation, depicted by a sun rising from a horizon.
The sunrise formation was a nod to the school’s Senior Sunrise group. Christian said it was the first meet-up for the year in which seniors gather early in the morning, usually on a sports field, and socialize with hot chocolate and coffee to watch the sunrise.
Football team members Alex Yohanna, an offensive lineman, and Gary Cadet, linebacker, told Pathieu on-camera what being on the football team meant to them. Cadet said when the team practices, plays and even eats together, it feels like it’s one unit working together.
“I hear all the time from other people, ‘Oh, you guys are always together. You guys are basically like brothers,’ that’s what I always hear. And that’s exactly what we are,” Yohanna said. “I love this team.”
The Wolves were scheduled to face off against the Berwyn/Cicero Morton High School Mustangs on Friday night.
