Driving in front of Muskogee High School, anyone can see the finishing touches being completed to Rougher Village, the new home for Muskogee football and basketball events.
If you’ve gone inside the gates of the new stadium, you’ve been exposed to the fast spreading energy known as Rougher Spirit, an infectious feeling fueled by the energy of many, including Muskogee senior Attie Jamison.
“It’s all of the pieces working together. Not just the football team, students, cheerleaders and the band but seeing the entire community coming together as one and overwhelmingly supporting the Roughers and our student body as a whole,” Jamison said with an enthusiastic voice.
As a student at Muskogee High School, Attie has always been in the middle of activities including the challenge to create leadership amongst her peers during her junior year. Attie, with help from many others, started making plans determined to make her senior year special.
“In August, nobody was able to predict the football team’s success but since it’s my senior year, I wanted to change things up and have fun doing things like TikTok videos and making crazy posters,” explained Attie, who admits to being a person that doesn’t always ask but just goes all-in doing things in a positive way.
“I went to some of the football guys and coaches and said we’re going to do this Tiktok video. And as the Roughers continued to win, our TikTok page went viral, and the momentum has gone wild.”
One example of Attie’s drive to build Rougher Pride is an extremely popular Fathead poster of Muskogee coach Travis Hill wearing sunglasses that resulted from the popular videos.
“I thought why not. Let’s get these to the student body with the phrase “Give ’em Hill” and it snowballed overnight,” she said. “Thanks to my dad and 10-8 Outfitters, we had signs that we took to every game in support of our team.”
Jamison’s “make a positive difference” desire results from a personal experience of community support as Attie, as well as her older sister, survived a life-threatening battle that included a six-week hospital stay after being diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis.
“The support and expressions of love was a big part of our recovery,” Jamison said. “Everyone went above and beyond encouraging me and Gracie as well as the rest of our family.”
The outpouring of support from friends and many others explains why and how Attie defines Rougher spirit.
“To me, it’s being a part of the community that supports each other regardless, winning or losing, good and bad,” she said. “You know that you’re always going to have a community that rallies around you, standing by your side and supports you to the finish.”
And while she will cross the graduation stage next May with academic honor cords earned with a 4.125 grade point average, Attie Jamison wants to see Rougher Pride continue to grow day by day.
“There’s one thing most people know about me…I won’t quit because I have and always will be proud to be a Muskogee Rougher,” Jamison said.
