Ashi-Baba Returns to SFHS!

Alyssa Wright
Chan Staheli- Ashi-Baba

On September, 13th, 2010, Spanish Fork High School held Ashi-Baba try outs. The first idea that comes to mind when we say try outs for this is what is Ashi-Baba? And where does it come from? It goes back to when a local restaurant owner visited a Spanish Fork High School assembly in 1972 and yelled “Ashi-Baba” and got the crowd yelling back, “Hey, Hey” just in an attempt to get people to feel pumped and get involved. Later, it became tradition that a student would run across the field at a football game or a school event with a big SF painted on his chest, and trying to get the crowd going and getting them excited and getting them to cheer. Knowing the origination of Ashi-Baba and how it had been successful for school spirit, the tradition was soon passed down senior to senior as every year a new Ashi-Baba would return with new plans and tricks up his/her sleeve. People ask, why would SFHS even have a student do that? Well, it answers the question what is Ashi-Baba? Ashi-Baba is a person selected to run spirit throughout the school, trying to get people pumped up and ready for games and ready to support. With everything known about Ashi-Baba, and why it was even started, the senior class decided that it was time to bring back Ashi-Baba and start getting spirit spread throughout the school. This year, as students came in to try out, they were asked to answer several simple questions such as: What is the purpose of Ashi-Baba? Why do you want to be Ashi-Baba? And then the judges would have the contestant say a special chant. As the judges found different answers to these questions, one person stuck out to them, and that one person is this year’s Ashi-Baba: Chan Staheli. No doubt everyone has heard his name as Chan is one of the most outgoing students at Spanish Fork High School, and also one of the most liked. Whitney Hansen and Alyssa Wright had the opportunity to talk to Chan, and they asked him a few questions about his new position in the school. He responded by saying, “Ashi-Baba is a one man cheer squad; my purpose is to help bring spirit to the crowd at different events. I love having spirit and because of that I wanted to do it especially when last year we didn’t have very much spirit. I feel like this year we could just restart and start new and have more spirit than ever; I have tons of plans for this year. I want to surprise the students with something new at every game, and I am even hoping to have my own introductory music.” They congratulate Chan and wish him the best of luck. Chan is very excited. He is really going to try and get the spirit going and taking his role of Ashi-Baba seriously by inspiring students to have spirit, and getting this tradition back on track. Ashi-Baba is back, bigger and better then it has ever been and SFHS is ready to say that this year, Chan is going to take our schools spirit to a whole new level.