A student sits on the bleachers, scrolling through their phone during a football game, feeling the repetition of another game. The newly refurbished SCHS Bruin Den aims to fix the problems of low energy and monotony between games by implementing themed sports games to increase student spirit and engagement.

One student working to improve sporting events is ASB Spirit and Sports Commissioner, senior Prateek Kundu. One game Kundu helped organize was a blackout and neon-themed night at a home game against Cupertino High School on Sep. 30.

“For neon (themed-night), we threw out necklaces, bracelets and stuff like that,” Kundu said. “We wore bright neon colors, or blackout clothes.”

Neon-themed night was not the only motif that the Bruin Den has done this year. For example, the tropical paradise-themed night involved vacation and beach-themed clothing and accessories, such as leis, which were thrown into the stands by Bruin Den club officers.

The Bruin Den has expanded themed nights to other sports, such as volleyball, and plans on implementing them for basketball. While the Bruin Den hopes to introduce as many unique themes as possible to avoid overlapping between sports, they have found it is not always possible.

“We’re going to try to add variation, but there are only so many themes you can do,” Kundu said. “It’s really hard to come up with themes so there will be some similarities, but we really try to make it different.”

While the Bruin Den aims to achieve greater student participation and higher attendance, the main goal of themed nights is to make the games more enjoyable.

“We’re hoping that with more participation, other students will see it’s a fun and engaging place and be more likely to come,” Kundu said.

While Bruin Den’s themed nights are an addition this year, they are not a new idea.

Last year the Bruin Den, formerly the Blue Hole, also attempted themed games. Sophomore Nathan Lei was part of the Blue Hole last year when they experimented with themed games.

“The themes mostly involved streamers or balloons being thrown into the stands,” Lei said. “There was one time during Homecoming night when we threw colored powder into the sky.”

Lei mentioned that the only themed night last year was Hawaiian Day, where students would dress up in Hawaiian-themed clothing and cheer from the stands, but the turnout was disappointing.

“The theme of Hawaiian clothes was not massively successful, as not a whole lot of the attendees wore themed clothing items,” Lei said.

Lei believes that the Blue Hole’s challenges last year were due to the lack of support from the former president.

“Last year was mostly one person doing everything, which brought down the quality of Blue Hole,” Lei said.

While the success of the Blue Hole was limited, Lei thinks the Bruin Den is heading in the right direction, and he believes the goal of the Bruin Den is working.

“I believe the main goal of the themed nights is to get the students as riled up as possible so that the game is as exciting as possible,” Lei said. “More cheers from your peers has to be a nice moral boost for the footballers.”