It’s Oct. 13, and you’re walking down the halls filled with vibrance and school spirit. As you pass all of your friends with their favorite costumes on and your classrooms decorated with color, you can’t help but smile because of the joy in the air.

Through the week of Oct. 10-14, we had our school spirit week, pep rally, and our Homecoming game and dance all in one. We asked the students their favorite part of this fulfilling week.

Students responded with an aspect of spirit week, being either neon day, jersey day, costume day, or school colors day, also being the day of the pep rally. They also chose either the Homecoming game against Heritage or the dance.

“Character day because I got to see everyone dress up, and everyone had some pretty nice and interesting characters. It wasn’t just boring people walking in the hallway. I got to see teachers in Mario suits,” sophomore Grace Jones said.

“Character day was probably my favorite, just watching teachers participate in that was really cool, showing that teachers can also have some fun,” senior Gabriel Del Bosque said.

While most students enjoyed character day for the amusing costumes, some students used their creativity and imagination to express their school spirit on other days.

“My favorite part was school colors day because I brought face paint to school and had a lot of fun putting it on my friends and when random people would come up to me and ask me to put it on them,” sophomore Elizabeth Wurster said. 

 Sarah Freeman, SGA advisor shared her thoughts on what she enjoyed and what her students did to make it all happen.

“SGA Students worked really hard to pick the days and advertise. I think they were happy with the result. We will always aim higher for next year, though,” Freeman said.

Student Body President, senior Ian Vestal, who helped put spirit week together, explains the planning that goes towards the themes.

“We didn’t get too much input on what the spirit week is because Ms. Hamler chooses for us. Basically, what would happen is we’d get so many rejected, that when we tried anything else, she chooses for us,” Vestal said.

On Friday we had our pep rally, where students, athletes and teachers came together to show their Cougar pride.

“My favorite part about spirit week was the pep rally. Since I am a foreign exchange student, I’ve never seen anything like that, and I thought it was cool to see the cheerleaders doing all their tricks and the teachers dancing around,” junior Laura Bouvier said. 

As spirit week came to an end, on Friday it was time for the annual Homecoming football game. This year the Homecoming game was extra special considering it was against our rival team, which caused a lot of excitement. 

“Definitely the Homecoming football game because I had a lot of fun with friends and football is great. It was also cool seeing my friends on Homecoming court and seeing the football team destroy Heritage,” senior Matthew Cullen said.

During halftime at the Homecoming game, the homecoming court walked across the field as their names were announced, and the Homecoming king and queen were decided. This ceremony got all the fans energized. 

“My favorite part of Homecoming week was the football game because there was so much energy, and it was fun to watch the game, Homecoming court and hang out with friends,” senior Shelley Roper said.

Our Homecoming King and Queen winners were senior Will Wrenn and senior Sydney Howard, who both participated in spirit week.

“For me, being a part of SGA was really exciting. It felt really good to be a part of the school, and in the process of putting together spirit week, and decorating signs, and putting up posters, and just seeing everyone’s reactions to the school spirit,” Howard said. “It was also really nice to like feel the school spirit actually, because we haven’t really had that in the past with Covid and everything, so it was really nice to have school spirit back this year.”

Both Howard and Wrenn enjoyed their Homecoming and spirit week with their peers whether or not they won.

“I’ve never been into the whole popularity contest thing, but I mean when I saw that I was on court, I was just like okay, I’ll try and win. So I advertised a little bit, and when I won, I wouldn’t say I was proud, but I was happy and content that I won,” Wrenn said.

“I have been a part of Homecoming Court for three years, so I was not nervous at all. I was very cold though. It was genuinely such a huge honor to be on the court even, because it is something that I really enjoy, and it’s always really fun to dress up and meet new friends and have new memories. So being there during half time, it was a huge honor, and I was really excited to see all my friends, and even see friends from Heritage, and just be able to walk down that field again, just like I did freshman year,” Howard said.