Every couple months or so, Wilsonville has a “Spirit Week,” where students are asked to dress in certain ways, such as in jerseys or solid colors just to name a few examples. However, the majority of students do not participate; I rarely do myself. It is far more likely that a teacher will wear clothing that corresponds to “Spirit Week” than a student will.
So why do they keep doing these, if they are not successful? The events are actually coordinated by our student spirit commissioners, Katrin Ellett and Emma Fauth, who do it as part of their Leadership activities. Junior Oliver Latta estimates that “about 50 percent” of students participate, and he likes the event, feeling it can “bring the school together”, despite significant numbers not participating.
Latta feels like more students would participate if they had the necessary items, for example many of the boys wouldn’t participate in wearing pink for Valentine’s Day. “Every demographic” participates, suggesting that choosing not to participate in Spirit Week is a personal choice.
Other examples of school spirit activities include the pep rallies we occasionally have during Life class, where the whole school participates in the festivities in the gym. These assemblies are good for “bringing everybody’s spirit to the same place” and “make themselves feel comfortable”, as Latta put it. This is an easy opportunity for many students, who might not be involved in many extracurricular activities or not that great academically or attendance-wise.
Ladda feels that what does unify the school are football games, where “everybody has something to cheer for and on the same side.” Even though according to him students generally get along with each other, they end up in groups and might not have the best relationships with some students. Instead of the division between various groups, based on interests or socioeconomic status, they are all represented by the “Wilsonville Wildcats,” whom they cheer for to beat the other school, ignoring any relationships they may have with them.
This only applies to the students that attend football games, however, despite it being my favorite sport to watch, I have never gone to one of our home games. This is not to say that there isn’t demand; I did try to go to the homecoming game this year, but there was no parking, legally or illegally.
Student sports commissioner Audrey Counts has a positive view of school spirit. She helps organize themes for spectators’ dress at certain sporting events, such as wearing light colors; dark colors; jerseys; red, white, and blue; neon; tropical; and Minions (blue and yellow).
The simpler themes are the best, with the tradition of dark colors for state championships most successful, getting about 90 percent of the student section per Counts’ estimate, showing that students like to express their support of the school when they’re united as one competing against others, and doing well in that regard.
When we’re at school, we’re divided—and when we’re representing the school to others, we’re united.