This season, The Sixth Man, a spirited group of unofficial cheerleaders who have become a fixture in the bleachers, will go to great lengths to show their spirit.

Senior “Anurat Rojainapairat spent three hours painting a red-and-white checkerboard pattern on his entire upper body,” senior member Carter Rockwell recalled with a grin. “All over his chest, under the armpits, everywhere.”

Other interested fans don’t need to go quite so far to show team spirit. It’s not hard to follow Rockwell’s lead; all you need is a Sixth Man shirt, lots of zeal and maybe a bird beak like the ones the group sports. “We call them our Fourth Quarter Rally Beaks,” Rockwell said. “We’ve worn them for three games, and we’ve won each one.”

Taking the beaks, the cheers, the megaphones and the personalized headbands into account, it would be easy to assume that being a Sixth Man takes a lot of planning. Not so. “Most of the stuff we do is spur of the moment,” Rockwell said. “We don’t plan much.”

This spontaneity is one of the group’s main perks. “Anyone can be a Sixth Man; it’s not a club, and you don’t have to try out or anything,” Rockwell said.

The Sixth Man will be busy today. Expect to see banners and bare bodies at the playoff game at 3:45 p.m. in the gym. “We are definitely planning to paint up; we will probably go all out. Paint everywhere — lots of skin,” Rockwell said. “We are planning to get a big Sixth Man sign that we can put up behind us in the bleachers that says, ‘Welcome to the Bird Cage’ to intimidate the other teams. And capes. Big, red capes.”

Depending on how the basketball team performs at the playoffs today, it may be a challenge for the Sixth Man may very well have to outdo itself in the finals at 7 p.m. on March 2 at Kezar.