The Wagner family decided they weren’t going to miss the boys state basketball championship on Saturday, even if it meant pushing everything else aside.

“My family and I have delayed our vacation by two days,” said Pat Wagner, a senior at Austin High School.

As the Packers basketball team fought its opponents on the court at the state tournament in Minneapolis, Wagner was one of a handful of students that led the charge from the stands. Their goal was simple: to keep their fellow students rooting for the team.

“The guys in the front row, we really keep the cheers,” said Gabe Kasak, who also encourages his fellow students to stay high-energy. “It’s our job to keep them going and keep them pumped up.”

The turnout at the state games this year remind him of last year’s first-round state game, where Kasak said the stands were a sea of red going back as far as he could see.

“You look back and the whole crowd’s got their hands up,” Kasak said.

Wagner said Austin’s student section has always been enthusiastic, but it’s easier for one or two people to rally the spirits of the smaller crowds at a regular season game than to keep hundreds of fans lively. Accordingly, the school has had six or seven unofficial student section leaders pumping up the crowd. Some intentionally stay toward the back rows to make sure students in the nosebleeds are not left out.

The games are a way for older students to carry on the tradition of passing down cheers and chants to younger students, who ultimately go on to take their predecessors’ place.

The crowd — students and parents both — get as caught up in the game and focused on a win as the players themselves.

“There’s this kind of feeling the crowd gets,” Kasak said, calling to mind the suspense that lingers during tense moments like free throws. “You feel like you’re affecting the game.”

There’s no system for determining which students will take the lead on cheers and chants, though Wagner said it helps if those students aren’t shy about raising their voices in front of school administrators.

“It’s just whoever’s the loudest and most obnoxious,” Wagner said with a laugh.

Math teacher and track and field coach Tony Einertson said the sheer number of students going to the games — which reached about 600 Thursday — showed students were serious about supporting their team. But they weren’t the only ones.

“You also see it from the teachers,” Einertson said. “It shows the respect the teachers have for the students.”

After the bell rang and the school day ended Thursday, about 30 teachers remained watching the game, along with a number of younger people.

“It’s been a good thing for the school,” Einertson said.

While keeping a high energy level in the student section is easy when the basketball team is doing well, Wagner said students shouldn’t give up if the Packers fall behind.

“That’s when it’s even more important,” he said.

As for Wagner and his family, they harbor no regrets pushing back their vacation. Wagner summarized his father’s words: 20 years from now, the family won’t remember an extra day of skiing in Colorado. But they will remember cheering on the Packers as they vied for the state basketball championship.