Wyoming Homecoming: Building Traditions At One Of State's Newest High Schools

GILLETTE — After school let out Monday, Thunder Basin High School Principal Mike Daniel and Activities Director Erik Shepherd pushed a steel contraption in the shape of the school’s initials — TB — onto a street between the football stadium and the school.

The letters were wrapped in torn-up bedsheets and Daniel carried a spray jug filled with diesel fuel. 

He explained how at halftime that night during the Bolts' junior varsity football game against Spearfish, South Dakota, the letters would be set on fire by a team of three local firemen, adding to the fanfare of the school's homecoming week.

For a school that hasn't yet welcomed home students to their 10-year reunion, the festivities are designed to lay a foundation for future celebrations by ingraining Thunder Basin High traditions.

As floats got in parade formation behind the high school and the marching band warmed up, Daniel said TBHS is trying to distinguish itself from crosstown rival Campbell County High School.

He pointed to one key difference between the schools: While Campbell County embraces chaos, Thunder Basin protects its symbol.

"Over at Campbell County, they have a big camel out front that the kids can spraypaint," Daniel said. "And they've had that for years, years and years. And it's always a Gillette thing.

"When we built Thunder Basin, we have a big, giant Bolt out front of our building that's a big steel structure. And we painted it blue and silver from Day One, and kids have never painted it."

The bolt has been tagged a couple times, but Daniel said custodians check it early in the morning and nobody ever sees any graffiti. 

"We repaint it blue and silver every summer. Usually, I'm the one doing that over the summer, which is kind of fun," he said. "Our kids just take pride in that.”

Thor's Warning

In 2016, the first class of students at TBHS nominated two potential mascots. Bolts won out over the Grizzlies, and fittingly so.

Just a week earlier, Shepherd had witnessed how appropriate the lightning bolt mascot truly is. A device measuring static electricity in the air as a lightning strike prevention system triggered during a football game, causing an hour and 45-minute delay.

"See that little thing on the edge of the building?" Shepherd said, pointing to a sensor called a Thor Guard. "When it goes off, it makes a siren. Everybody goes inside. What it does, it takes static electricity out of the air. If there's so much of it, that thing goes off. Everybody clears."

Shepherd can monitor the Thor Guard on his phone, watching whether conditions move through degrees of danger from red to yellow to green. 

For Shepherd, who has been in the Campbell County School District for 22 years and served as the school's strength and conditioning coach before becoming activities director this year, homecoming week is a time to celebrate his own commitment to this place. 

"I just had opportunities to go elsewhere, and I chose to stay at Thunder Basin because I love the environment at Thunder Basin," Shepherd said. "I love the kids. The coaches are amazing. The kids are what makes it, though. They're just phenomenal kids. And you just want to give them everything you got so they have the best experience they can have."

Coming from Nebraska, Shepherd has noticed how Thunder Basin is still growing its homecoming traditions. 

"Homecoming in Nebraska is a big deal," he said. “The homecoming dance where I came from is huge. The homecoming dance here, I'd like to see it grow bigger.” 

There’s also a difference in the role fire plays in heating up school spirit. 

"In Nebraska you never burned your own letters," he explained. "Like if we played Alliance in high school we burned the A. But right here we burn our own logo."

As the school approaches its 10-year milestone, Shepherd and his colleagues are thinking ahead. 

"We were talking the other day about at the 10-year mark to start the Hall of Fame," he said. "So that'll be fun.” 

Creative Collaboration 

Bree Arzy-Mitchell, a physical science and anatomy teacher who also coaches cheer, helped bring the burning TB tradition to life back in 2017 when the school first opened.

"I just had the idea that we could ask the welding shop to weld it, and they did an amazing job," Arzy-Mitchell said. "So it's, like, made with a bunch of stuff at the school.”

The structure features the school's initials with a lightning bolt between the letters. 

“Once it gets going you really can't see it really well,” she said. "Every homecoming we start the week with the burning of the bolt. We wanted some traditions to start off with, and so this one has been a great one because it has started and we've kept it.”

Cult Following

In the parade line up waiting for the marching to begin, tuba player Gavin Hart offered a glimpse of one-way school spirit is taking shape at TBHS. 

"The traditions that the band has are pretty much like a cult," Hart said, referring to how the group think of the band allows it to perform in sync. 

 Band director Steve Schofield, now in his 31st year of teaching, didn't disagree with the characterization. 

"We always joke that we're a cult — it's totally just for fun," Schofield said. "But a lot of the other teachers would probably agree that, ‘Yeah, there's something going on there.’ And that's great because the culture has been absolutely fantastic." 

Generational Spirit

Among the spectators lining up along the parade route was Don Madsen, a coal miner and mechanic for Peabody Energy who came to watch his granddaughter participate. His T-shirt bore a simple message: "Whiskey helps."

Having worked at the mines for 21 years, Madsen was one of the lucky ones who avoided layoffs during past downturns. Now he's watching the third generation of his family participate in Gillette homecoming traditions.

"My boys were all Campbell County," Madsen said. "My daughter was the first Bolt in my family. And now my granddaughter is going to be one."

When asked why the community does these traditions, Madsen shrugged. "I did it. My son's doing it now. My grandkids are doing it. I think it's just something we do. We all get together, support them."

The parade route headed across the street from TBHS and turned at the corner of College Drive and Sinclair Street, proceeding down College Drive with cars parked all the way down. Kids scrambled for candy tossed by various floats — the swimming and diving team, the volleyball team and the Coal Country FFA chapter.

Daniel explained the deliberate choice of route. 

"We do it around our school and across at the campus for the simple reason of a lot of the elementary schools that feed us are close and those kids can walk," he said. "Downtown Gillette is so far away for us here."

After the parade, the school hosts a tailgate with food trucks and cornhole games, inviting all feeder schools to join.

The Burning

As darkness fell and the crowd gathered around the steel TB structure, Campbell County Fire Captain Robert Dickey and his crew prepared to ignite the letters. Dickey explained the process: they would spray the rags with diesel fuel and use a “bigger, more technical version of a road flare" to light it.

The tradition connects to Gillette's high school history. 

"Back in the day when I was there," Dickey said of his time at Campbell County High School, "it was a burning of the G" — G for Gillette.

For Dickey and his crew, helping with the controlled burn at the public event is a welcomed duty. 

"We love to do this," he said.

The fire department stood ready with their equipment as flames leapt from the diesel-soaked bedsheets, casting dancing shadows across the faces of students, parents and alumni.

“It’s just a great way to start the week,” said Arzy-Mitchell, recalling how a few years ago, the fire crew got called to another fire while the TB burned. "We had already started it. So we were like, ‘Oh, so because it's a school, we have lots and lots and lots of fire extinguishers.”

Arzy-Mitchell added, “I think this is a fun tradition to do. I think it's fun to kind of kick start and fire them up,” as the PA system at the football stadium played AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” and the Bolt cheerleaders went through their routine in front of the flames.

David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.