By Grace Givan, Editor-in-Chief
According to senior Matthew Woloch, everyone attending the 5 a.m. flyover on Sept. 20 was still groggy and sleepy upon first arriving at the George Gattas Stadium. However, once 5:30 a.m. rolled around, the group became more energized as ABC 7 started interviewing people and the activities began.
“At first it was kind of shocking that [ABC] was there, [people were] just taking it all in that you were going to be on the news and that they were there,” Woloch said. “But, later, it was like they were just there and it wasn’t the main focus point.”
From 5 to 6 a.m., the ultimate frisbee games took place while the ABC reporter was live on the ground conducting interviews. After 6 a.m., the students transitioned to going onto the football field and creating a formation for the helicopter to flyover and record them. According to Chris Cirrincione, one of the coordinators for the flyover, students made a new formation every 20 minutes: first, they made the “U;” second, they made the shield other Knight with a “P” in the middle; third, they made the ABC 7 logo.
Prospect gained this opportunity by applying for it last spring.
“I talked about the underground, the student body and the amount of activities and school spirit that our students and staff have on behalf of Prospect,” Cirrincione said. “I think based on what I wrote, the producers looked at all the applications and found that prospect would be a phenomenal example for the Friday Flyover.”
According to Cirrincione, 600 to 700 people were expected to attend, which would aid in how the “Underground” is perceived. This perception of the “U” is important because this flyover — along with Prospect’s overall school spirit — is intended to help Prospect win “the Best Student Section” in six weeks when the football season is over. This is against the eight other schools participating in the flyover, and there will be a public vote put on by ABC on abc7.com. 
If Prospect wins, the school will receive a trophy and the official title of the best school Friday Flyover.
For Woloch, his experience was centered around playing frisbee, as his team Fantasy Frisbee played two games. His team won both games against Atomic and Juice, and he said that playing in the morning gave them a different kind of energy.
“It was just a whole different vibe than playing in the afternoon because, since we were up at 5 a.m., we might as well just give it our all.” Woloch said.
Woloch believed this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In fact, Cirrincione loved to hear student’s excitement for the flyover, as he knew of some students’ plans to carpool in the morning and even have sleepovers the night before.
“The reaction I’ve seen has been extremely positive, which is so exciting,” Cirrincione said. “We deliberately kept it a secret until the homecoming assembly because we wanted to give that wow factor and shock, and I think once people fully understood what it actually entails and got over the sticker-shock of 5 a.m. arrival, became really excited … It’s really exciting, just to see something that is totally out of our ordinary at Prospect and that the entire school is rallying behind.”