One year ago, I wrote an article for the Sentinel “Hale yes or Hale no” detailing the lack of spirit within our school. I talked about the strong benefits from having spirit and how it could transform Nathan Hale. This year, a well deserving update has been in the works.
Nathan Hale has been notoriously famous for having a lack of spirit in comparison to other schools. Weak student sections at football games, low participation in spirit week, and constant negative talk on our school from students.
School spirit is much more important than people give it credit for. High levels of spirit not only benefit the overall learning environment but also student satisfaction in high school. Studies from Varsity Brands found that students with high levels of school spirit tend to do better academically in comparison to their peers as well as participate in more extracurricular activities.
This year, with the help of ASB and a new found partnership with Cheer, we have seen a dramatic rise in student participation as well as overall spirit as a school.
“I’m working closely with ASB to see what we can realistically do, not just this year but in the coming years as well, to steadily improve school spirit at Hale,” said cheer coach Halia Reynolds, explaining the efforts to expand school activities in hopes of making a more spirited and united community.
“Spirit itself is not the end goal. It’s community.”
Spirit week this year showed once again that winning isn’t always seniority based. The Juniors found the spirit stick last minute resulting in an addition of 1,000 spirit points and taking home their second consecutive win over the senior class.
Even though a decent amount of students were involved in dressing up and participating in lunch time activities like family feud or volleyball games, I still see a large space where we can continue to grow as a school.
This is the first year that pep rallies have been reintroduced back to Hale. “We were approved to do our Raider rallies at lunch where we provide games, activities, music, sometimes even face paint and things to get the community engaged and bring everyone together,” said Reynolds.
“We did a hot dog fundraiser last week before the football game, and we sold a lot of hot dogs and I think it really brought people together,” said senior Ian Cook about the newly introduced “Hale-gate” , a tailgating fundraiser ASB hosted for multiple home games. Hale-gate is just one of the many projects set to become a new Hale tradition.
Not only is the leadership in our school more active in providing activities to raise spirit but the students have been receptive and joined in.
“I think a lot more people have come to the football games and almost everyone is following the theme,” said vice president of the Junior class Dano Lanier. In comparison to last year’s football game attendance, this year’s participation is much better but we still have room for improvement.
Having cheer and ASB host fun activities can help students break out of their shells who might be hesitant in displaying school pride otherwise. “If you see people doing that stuff, you are going to be encouraged to do it too,” said Junior class president Austin Vandervort.
I find that students often get lost in what other people think of us or if it’s “cool” to dress up or be involved in school activities. Remember there is nothing embarrassing about having fun and participating in spirit days! Having pride in your school is nothing to be ashamed about and neither is displaying it.
We as students are directly responsible for the lack of spirit we have as a school. Complaining about Hale’s spirit levels or low involvement in HOCO week activities is pointless if you don’t participate yourself. Instead of expecting change, become it.
School spirit doesn’t mean one specific thing. Stereotypically school spirit centers around football games and assemblies but in reality it can mean whatever you want it to. “Going to [band] concerts, coming to shows or just coming to drama club. Just being involved in the community in any way can show spirit and that you are happy to be here,” said Junior Sivan Shavit.
School spirit can look like going to a music concert or the fall play. It can look like going to a pep rally with your friends or cheering on your school at a track meet.
School spirit is up for personal interpretation on how you want to express your pride in Nathan Hale.
At the end of the day, does school spirit matter that much? Yes and no.
As my second year as cheerleader, I’ve now understood all the efforts we go through like making posters and hosting pep rallies, isn’t just to have the stands filled at games, or to have everyone go all out on spirit days. It’s the feeling that comes with it. The feeling of being unified as a school.
It’s the way it brings us together as a student body with a common cause. I’ve never seen my grade so united as it was during the yankee doodle day’s assembly last year when the Sophomores won with the most spirit points. It didn’t matter who you were, or the people you were friends with. If you were wearing white you were one of us. You belonged.
“Spirit itself is not the end goal. It’s community.” Said leadership advisor Leland Swarts. It’s about making everyone feel like they belong and have a place at Hale. Community starts with coming together as a school, surrounding the one thing we all have in common. The fact we all go to Nathan Hale.
The fact we are all students here and this IS our high school experience. We have the power to make it however we want. If you want change in our school, be the change.
As Reynolds put it, “In 30 years from now when someone asks where you graduated from. You should be able to say, with a smile, I graduated from Hale, and I had a lot of fun.”