By Chisom Ukoha
Staff Writer
@uchisom3

Being in front of the entire Coppell High School student section, the parents and the teachers, can be quite nerve racking, especially when you are tasked with getting them hyped up. It is a task that only a few are up to, and senior Ben Kelly is one of them.

“You get a little bit nervous before kickoff like right before you start the ‘I Believe’ chant,” Kelly said. “But right after you do ‘I Believe’ chant all the nerves go away. You always get nervous. but it always goes away.”

Kelly is the 2015-2016 Plunger Boy at CHS. He was assigned the duty by last year’s Plunger Boy, Daniel Jones, who is currently  a freshman at the Air Force Academy.

“My senior year, there was a group of about 10 of us, juniors and seniors that would decide on what is going on with the student section and student body, and Ben Kelly was part of that,” Jones said. “So when it came down to who would be the next Plunger Boy, it had to be someone that was a good leader, someone that I could trust to be a good Plunger Boy. And going with that there are a lot of political things that go with it. It isn’t just who can yell the loudest, but who is responsible, who can sit down and have a meeting with the superintendent. Just stuff like that, and  I thought Ben was the best candidate for that position.”

Kelly played on the varsity baseball team with Jones for three years, and they have been close friends ever since. In order to qualify as a Plunger Boy, one cannot participate in fall or winter sports so that they can perform at the games and pep rallies.

“It’s really fun,” Kelly said. “You get to be on the sidelines during the football games, and get to lead the best student section in Texas. It’s just a thrill. It’s something that you look forward to all week, and can’t wait until Friday, or you can’t wait for Tuesday night to come. It is always something to look forward to.”

Not only does Kelly enjoy his role, but his friends all think that Kelly is a good fit for Plunger Boy.

“I have played with Ben my whole life, pretty much since we were about 8 or 9,” senior Charles King said. “I think Plunger Boy is a good fit for him. Ben is really good at making people laugh, he is really energetic, he really gets the crowd going. Seeing him down there looks like a really good fit for him. It looks like he is having a lot of fun. It is good to see him there, because I think that he deserves that role and it is fun to see him down there every game day having a blast.”