King’s Men may have only added four new members to their brotherhood this semester, but they say that isn’t stopping them from having fun, growing closer together and growing closer to God.
Freshman and new member Michael Cogan said he enjoyed his Club Week experience and he is excited to be a part of the group.
“It was a ton of fun,” Cogan said. “What we lacked in size we made up with brotherhood.”
Freshman and new member Denver Willis said he thinks that having a smaller pledge class and a smaller club in general actually provides him with an advantage.
“Having fewer members means we will and already have grown closer to each other,” Willis said. “I like being in a small group because of that brotherly bond, and it is a lot easier to memorize every members’ name.”
Throughout the week, the new members were exposed to many of the club’s favorite traditions. But sophomore member Ozzy Johnson said the club was also trying to make some major changes in its pledge in order to refocus on Christ.
“Our traditions include the Brick Devo, where we make sure the new pledges are getting to know each other personally, the Trumpets and Farmers Insurance cheers, the Four Mile location, and the footwashing ritual,” Johnson said. “Otherwise, we decided it was time to make a change. In the past, we felt our traditions were not embodying Christ as we had hoped, and (we) dedicated ourselves to having a truly Christian pledge week. One where we came together not because of fear, but because of companionship and a deep love for Christ. Our club strives to be the King’s Men—the King being Jesus. And we feel as though our new traditions and enjoyable pledge week truly embody the Christian spirit.”
Another memorable component of the King’s Men club week was the creative cheers they performed at All Club Devo. Johnson said these were a team effort from a brainstorming session regulated by the club President and VP.
“As for the cheers themselves, we decided that simple was better,” Johnson said. “The more we were able to just be ourselves, instead of trying to achieve what other bigger clubs could, the more we felt our cheers improved. Monday, for example, was proving we could work in unison with the ‘We are Kingsmen’ Farmers Insurance jingle. The trumpets on Tuesday was traditional, showing that even though we were small, we could make a big impact. Thursday was embracing the nerdiness of our club. We recognize that our core is made of people who enjoy goofy, ridiculous, nerdy stuff, and what better way to show it than with lightsabers? Finally, Friday was a shout-out to our past. Bruce McClarty was a former member of King’s Men, and well-liked by the students, so we sought to showcase our heritage with giant posters of his head.”
Willis said he had a blast performing the cheers and didn’t find any reasons to complain about the King’s Men club week overall.
“As far as club week goes, I’d keep the hanging out, devotionals and activities with different smaller girls’ clubs,” Willis said. “There’s not much to change about our club week. There was nothing overly difficult or humiliating that we had to do for the week at all. I loved our short but clever chants for All Club and all of the members.”
