Tatum Steiner has been on a mission to re-energize school spirit at Dodge City High School. 

“Sometimes at such a big school, school spirit gets lost,” Steiner said. “I really wanted to focus this year on getting things organized and having a set plan and things ready far in advance.”

Steiner set her sights on transforming the Demon Den, Dodge City’s student cheering section. The senior helped map out themes for the section for football, soccer and volleyball games this season, as well as wrestling and basketball games this winter. 

“We want to get the word out to others that we’re trying to improve our school spirit by making things organized,” she said. 

Steiner, the Capitol Federal® True Blue® Student of the Week, said the changes have already made a noticeable difference. 

“Our football attendance this year has been through the roof,” Steiner said. “We used to struggle to get our student section filled and now we’re struggling to find places for people to stand in our student section. It’s a big difference.”

Dodge City Athletic Director Jay Gifford agreed. 

“The impact has been felt by our volleyball, soccer, and football games where our student sections have been crowded, engaged and supportive,” said Gifford, who lauded Steiner for personally encouraging students of all grade levels to attend home events.  

“She has taken the spotlight and attempted to shine it brightest on others,” Gifford added. “Our theme this year is: We over Me. Tatum has been a great example for others to join in putting others first at Dodge City High School.”

This is Steiner’s second year serving on the Kansas State High School Activities Association’s Student Advisory team, helping provide valuable input to the Association on behalf of her peers. 

“I really enjoy it because I like getting to talk to the other classes and making friends that way,” Steiner said. “I enjoy the social aspect, but I also like learning about what goes behind making the rules and how you run the KSHSAA activities.

“We get told the new rules and plans and they ask how we feel about it. Everybody usually talks about how it will affect their school and their class and their region. I know for the smaller schools they have to travel a little bit more for basketball this year, but that travel time is pretty normal here in western Kansas. Getting to voice your opinion and how you feel about certain things, that’s the reason why I really like it. We have a voice.”

Steiner got a chance to further hone her leadership skills last July at the National Student Leadership Summit in Indianapolis. 

“It was the best time ever. I loved it,” Steiner said. “It was one of my favorite parts of the summer. I liked getting closer with my fellow KSHSAA Student Advisory team members. We got to hear some really great speakers and learn new leadership skills and meet people from all over the world.

“It improved my leadership skills by being surrounded by people that feel the same way as I do.”

Crediting the influence of her parents, Shawn and Heather Steiner, Tatum said leadership has always come naturally to her. 

“Both my parents were coaches at one point, so it’s been a big deal to be that leader that people can look up to,” she said. “My freshman year, I really didn’t have to be in a leadership role because I had great seniors around me. But my sophomore year was when I really needed to step up and become a leader and learn those valuable skills. 

“Having that experience as an underclassman really helped me now to understand what it takes to be a leader – a good leader. How to be supportive and have people wanting to be involved, that’s of big importance to me.”

Shawn Steiner is Activities Director at Dodge City, allowing Tatum to keep a pulse on the inner workings at the school. 

“He gives me some really good advice and if something’s going wrong and I’m overwhelmed I can always talk to him because he’s been in that situation and he knows what goes behind some of things,” Steiner said. “And that helps me, when people are confused or upset by decisions, I can be like, ‘Hey, these are the rules. It’s not because they’re trying to make things difficult or hard for you.’”

After spending much of the fall supporting and cheering on her classmates, Steiner will soon dive back into competition herself, playing basketball in the winter and softball in the spring. 

“Softball has basically been my life since I was born,” she said. “I was one of those kids that was raised at the ballpark. My mom was the head coach at the high school for a long time and she coached high school summer teams.

“Just being at the park and being surrounded by softball has helped me love it even more. Softball has taught me so many great values.”

Her dedication to the sport was rewarded with an opportunity to play at the next level, recently committing to Butler Community College. 

“It felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders,” Steiner said. “Butler is such a great college. I knew that was where I wanted to go. Now I feel more free and I can just worry about my game instead of worrying about what’s going to happen next.”

When reflecting on her career so far, Steiner said some of her favorite moments involve watching her teammates grow as players. 

“Softball is not as big here as it is in some other places in Kansas, but just seeing some of my teammates grow and succeed has been amazing,” Steiner said. “Our softball team gets along really well. We all enjoy being around each other – sometimes a little too much. We can be a little goofy.

“It’s an environment where there’s no issues and we make a lot of great memories.”

Steiner will study history in college with future plans to become a history teacher and a coach at the high school level. 

“I originally was going to go into elementary education, but I had an amazing history teacher my junior year, Mr. (Jim) Mapel,” she said. “He helped define what I really wanted to do with my life. He also teaches the Teacher Cadet Program, which is a shadowing class where you go into different classrooms.

“Having him both my semesters my junior year really helped establish that I want to go into history and I want to be a teacher like him.”

Steiner hopes the rejuvenated student section at sporting events will remain strong in future years. 

“We’ve laid down the basis of what we need to do, now let’s get the younger classes involved and help them understand this is what you need to do to make something long lasting,” she said.