UST Yellow Jackets: a battle won in the gallery

AS VARSITY players troop to the hard court, half of the battle is won in the stands, one that’s determined by the loudest, most colorful cheer.

The UST Yellow Jackets (YJ) know what’s at stake each time they settle in the gallery and bang those drums.

They need to keep the adrenalin pumping and the UST crowd cheering.

And this is exactly what they have been doing since the group was formed in the early 1990s.

Since then, Thomasian cheering—with its signature “Go USTe”—was never the same again.

“We need to give pride and audacity for UST. As they say, YJ is the symbol of the Thomasian spirit so we want to live up to that goal,” YJ president Jefferson Gorriceta said.

The group began as the UST Bangers in 1993, the same year the school hosted the UAAP. The following year, the Bangers joined forces with the much-older and more prominent Salinggawi Dance Troupe, an alliance that won for UST that season’s cheerdance competition.

But the name clearly had no Thomasian touch. That’s why the group was renamed the Yellow Jackets in 1997, in honor of the University’s color. It was eventually recognized as an official campus organization in 2001.

The recognition meant more perks besides the usual PE class exemption. It granted members partial scholarships of 25 percent for those who had been with the team for two years, and 50 percent for those who had stayed much longer.

The YJs are more often seen in games by the UST Tigers. Later, they’ve been just as ubiquitous in volleyball games. Gorriceta said the YJs would love to cheer also for other UST teams.

“We want to cheer for every Thomasian team as much as possible. But we are not updated with the schedules of other sports. Unlike in basketball and volleyball, the schedules of other sports cannot be easily known,” he said.

Copycat?

The YJs were once accused in online forums of duplicating a popular cheer by the San Beda College for their “Animo Cheer.”

“San Beda claimed that [the cheer] was theirs so we started some changes. Last year, I assigned the trainees to form a new cheer. Then they were able to form something that made the foundations of the Ganaremos cheer,” Gorriceta said.

Thus, “Ganaremos,” the Spanish UST cheer, was born.

The cheer goes, “Vamos Tigres, el campeon/Vamos Tigres, ganaremos/Victoria! (Let’s go Tigers, the champions/ Let’s go Tigers we will win/ Victory).”

“YJ is known for its originality and we take so much pride in our cheers so we do not want to share the same cheers with other universities,” he said. Mary Athena D. de Paz