Allen High School held a community-wide contest for prideful lyrics to match the famous melody of Allen’s school fight song. After the entries were submitted, they were evaluated by a committee comprised of staff, students and alumni. They ultimately chose winner Sarah Nelson.

Nelson cultivated her passion for music and writing at Brigham Young University. She’s a mother of four and regularly attends the football games with the kids.

“Fight songs mean a lot to me because my grandpa used teach them to me when I was young– tons of different fight songs,” Nelson said. “We sang his high school one all the time and then when I was in high school we didn’t have one.”

Nelson believed that this contest was a good opportunity to be creative and give her composition skills a try.

“I hated not having one and thought my grandpa would enjoy knowing that I was thinking of him,” Nelson said. “I just thought ‘well this will be fun I love to write.’”

Nelson’s mix of loving to write and inspiration from her grandpa gave her the momentum to create the lyrics. She said she took the time to carefully make sure that the rhythm went well with the words.

“I kept watching the video they sent with the link with the band playing and I had to write the notes out,” Nelson said. “I have a piano at home, so I had to write all the notes out so I could make sure I hit all the beats and everything.”

Using her piano to match words to beats, she was able to create a tune that would eventually be pronounced the offical lyrics for the Allen High School fight song. She had no idea she would get picked.

“I keep trying to picture it, and it seems hard to imagine just so many people singing words you wrote, which is kind of fun to know that that’s something you worked really hard for,” Nelson said. “[It’s] like a dream.”