Many students at North Cobb have heard of the popular feature for their phones—the new Tribe App, presented to students at the beginning of the year. Offering prizes for the most involved students at the school, the idea shot out of the gate with intense popularity.

The app began as a vague concept based on the new mobile systems colleges and universities have implemented to drive up attendance and enthusiasm about games and other school activities.

“The purpose of the Tribe App in regards to North Cobb was to bring that college feel to the school, as well as the bring students, members of the community, and local businesses together,” administrator Mr. Revard said.

The app stands as an interesting new addition to North Cobb and the credit goes to two students, sophomore Chris Page and junior Rosemary Somefun, who created the remarkable application.

“I’m really into computers and doing technical stuff and I really like design, so I was definitely interested in creating the app,” Somefun said.

Page pointed to his passion for extracurriculars as inspiration for creating the popular app.

“I got involved in Tribal Connections and that was the idea going around in the club, and I was very interested in the sports and the school, and I wanted to get involved in something,” Page said.

Both students agreed that student attendance was lacking in some areas of the school.

“Students weren’t really interested in sports and activities around the school other than football. We wanted to get people involved in other sports, especially girls sports because people don’t really go to those. That’s where the point system comes in,” Somefun said.

A certain number of points get added to a student’s any time they attend a school event. Generally, less-popular functions earn more points.

“If students go to a girl’s softball game, which a lot of people don’t go to, that’s going to be like twenty points, but if you go to a football game, that’s only like five points, so hopefully they’ll go to a softball game and maybe realize that they like softball and it will build the fan base,” Page said.

Somefun and Page volunteered for the assignment at a retreat for elected officers at a country club over the summer. Dr. Page and Mr. Revard presented the students with the idea and asked for volunteers.

“Chris and I were the only ones who were interested in actually doing the app. After they told us what they wanted in it, we sat down, thought of a name, and figured out how we were going to create it,” Somefun said.

They decided to contact the app company, SuperFanYou, which had helped other schools create their apps in the past. The company sent them an app template, and the students filled in all the items that made their app specific to North Cobb.

“We gave them the design as far as the colors and the pictures, and what we want, like if we want a leaderboard or if we want social media on there. Any of the posts or added features, stats, calendars, and events are what we put in,” Page said.

The process took the better part of a year; Page and Somefun worked tirelessly to make the app available to the school as soon as possible.

“We had to go through each individual event, create the GPS coordinates, and then we would decide we wanted to do this, and then realize that wasn’t a good idea, so it’s been a back-and-forth process,” Somefun said.

Somefun and Page shared their excitement in the success their app received so quickly after its release.

“Our first football game was our biggest gate ever. And we’re seeing sports that typically don’t have a lot of people attend those events. For example, we saw 140 students check in to a JV softball game, which is really cool,” Revard said.

Many students show their appreciation for the app by loyally attending events.

“I’ve been using the Tribe App a lot and I’ve seen a lot of other people using it too. I think it’s really well set up and well designed because it really encourages us to be a part of our school,” junior Nashon Tafari said.

Looking toward the future, Somefun and Page hope to continue expanding the Tribe app and its outreach among the Warrior community.