Spirit Week
The pep rallies, the outfits, the excitement — we all love us some good ol’ school spirit. Spirit week is the one time a year where the students of Burncoat actually get to display their originality. This year's was one of the most successful weeks in the past four years, totally surpassing spirit week last year. Students got more involved and truly displayed their school spirit. The question is, why was this year's Spirit week more grand than the last? What reasons did students have to participate more and show their support?
We interviewed students throughout each and every class in search of an answer to our question. Students admitted their reasons were simple. They were more interested in the themes that were offered this year. There was Green and White Monday where we showed our school spirit by sporting the colors of Burncoat (sadly, due to weather conditions, we were not able to participate in Monday's event). Then came Tropical Tuesday, where we embraced the summer by wearing beach attire like grass skirts, button-up Hawaiian shirts, leias, or even straw hats. Wacky Wednesday, the most creative day of the week., was all about students letting their imaginations run wild and seeing how ridiculous they could look. Next to Color Wars, this was the most participated-in day. Not only was it fun, but it was uniting. Almost everyone joined in on the ugly, and, for that one day, ugly became the norm. Throwback Thursday allowed students to go back in time by wearing various clothing from different decades. It allowed them to explore and celebrate the history of traditions and cultures. Finally, the main event, Color Wars, was a fan-fave.
When asked, Junior Theodora Pappoe said with enthusiasm, “Color wars was my favorite day.”
Color wars was a showstopper because it was easiest to participate in and it inspired a sense of competition between students, especially with the Seniors who are leaving Burncoat and aim to achieve a legacy. Also, students wanted to represent their classes and let the other grades know where their hearts lied. Without doubt, the Senior class put in a good effort and won Color Wars fair and square. Although jealousy from the other grades might invoke some to say, “It's not fair, seniors always win”, that simply is not the case.
“Spirit week brings [out] a sense of friendly competition in people," Senior Sonia Bamfo said.
On Friday, the pep rally certainly brought it out between teachers and students during the game. The pep rally included the dance team performing their classic routine and their performance excited the whole audience. People were jumping and cheering for their class and the entire gym filled with glee. As the basketball game started, people were hyping up the teams as they were rooting for as winner. The teachers had an early-on lead which only grew as the game went on. Later on, in an act of kindness by Ms. Binkoski, each team was allowed to pick three excellent shooters from their team to free throw the ball for extra points. It gave the seniors a chance to catch up with the teachers. However, though the seniors played well, the teachers won by considerable margin and paid the seniors back for all difficulties they caused in the last four years. Nevertheless, even though the seniors lost, they held their heads high due to the school-wide support.
Spirit week's rankings rated the Freshmen in last place as they always are, regardless of the year. Then, in third place were the Sophomores. Second place was claimed by the Juniors and though they were great, the first place winners were the Seniors. However, no matter the results, students in all grades represented their classes well. Notable Spirit Week participants include Sienna Ablorh from the Junior class who went above and beyond during Wacky Wednesday, Nana Minkah who had an outstanding 90's gangster outfit for Throwback Thursday, Senior Alysha Yarborough, who bled red on Color Wars Friday and freshman Stephanie Manu who did well on Tropical Tuesday. Even the administrators and staff members of the school pledged their allegiance to Burncoat by showing their school spirit. This created an “if you can’t beat em’, join em” type situation. Since most of the students were showing their school spirit, others felt inclined to join in on the fun. These days, no one likes to be out of the loop.
Student, Juslyn Codjoe, a respective member of the Senior class stated, "I did it because I didn't want to be left out.”
Even though in the past freshmen might not have gotten along with juniors, or juniors might not have gotten along with sophomores, Spirit Week comes to unite us all. Whether it is Color Wars, Throwback Thursday, or Wacky Wednesday, the activities all involve working together as a whole. Friendly competition like Spirit Week is there to motivate. Although we were not able to fully show our school spirit due to the cancellation of Monday's Green and White Day, the fun we had gave a reason to look forward to next year’s Spirit Week. We hope it will be just as amazing or heck, even better