COOPERSVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — When Robert March and Diego Cancela were freshmen at Coopersville High School, they knew hardly any upperclassmen, and the juniors and seniors didn’t know them either.

Now that they are in their final year of high school, that’s all changed, thanks to the work they’ve been doing from day one.

“We had everybody on the football field for the first day of school. We got to meet so many new people. We did little games to introduce ourselves and share facts about us,” March said. “Now, I see freshmen in the hallway who I remember that I saw that day, and say hi to them and everything, just something simple like that.”

The concept may seem simple, but creating opportunities for communication between classes like this can have a significant impact on the students.

“The big goal is to get everybody feeling included in the school,” Cancela said.

The Bronco Teams idea came from a teacher with two sons who graduated from Forest Hills Eastern High School. Eastern started the Hawk Teams initiative about six years ago with the goal of teaching seniors how to be leaders and creating more unity among all grades.

“(Our teacher) brought over the idea, and so far, we hit the ground running. We started off our first day with a bang, and we’ve been going ever since,” Cancela said.

There are four main hallways at Coopersville High School, which are now separated by color to designate each Bronco Team. The teams are all made up of mixed grades so that freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors all have the chance to get to know each other. Students can earn points and rewards for certain behaviors, like attending football games on Friday nights and other school events.

“This is a program that’s built over time, so even one more person, that’s a win to us. And that’s the whole goal, just slowly building, making a snowball effect,” Cancela said.

“We just want everybody to feel included and welcome and make sure they know people because it’s never fun not knowing people. It’s like a big family,” March said.

As Bronco Team leaders, March and Cancela are in charge of planning the activities for their hallway and inspiring team members to show up for events like football games. That means putting themselves out there and figuring out what it takes to lead, skills they both plan to take with them as they graduate.

“Going into college, with bunch of new people, new experiences, it’ll be nice to be able to (breathe) a sigh of relief and be like, ‘I’ve done this before. I can do it again’ and start up these conversations,” Cancela said.