As homecoming week comes to an end at Marjory Stomen Douglas High School, the school spirit leaves with it. Throughout the year, there are only a few specific spirit days where students and staff are encouraged to dress up and participate in fun activities held relating to different themes. There should be more spirit days added throughout the year, as well as themed sports games, so students have more to look forward to.

At MSD, there are only a few select spirit days throughout the year. Most of these days are concentrated in just one week: Homecoming spirit week. During the week, students and staff are encouraged to dress up in different themed outfits for each day of the week, leading up to the Homecoming dance on the weekend. Many students enjoy having the opportunity to dress differently than they normally would while also showing support for their school and grade.

This year, the Homecoming spirit week included Tailgate Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, Class Colors, and Country vs Country Club. After that, MSD only has one other spirit week, the week before winter break, where students dress in fun socks and ugly sweaters.

A way to bring students together is by having themed sports games when they are played at our home field. For the Homecoming Football game held at the end of the Homecoming spirit week, students were encouraged to dress in their class colors: Green for freshman, blue for sophomores, red for juniors, and black for seniors. Encouraging students to dress up for home games may influence more students to attend.

There are also themes for non-homecoming week games too. However, people do not dress up for other sports, causing less people at the games. Sports like volleyball and track do not get the same amount of recognition that the bigger sports get. Each sport should have a designated day with a spirited theme, for example black out or hawaiian, where everyone can attend the game in fun clothing showing their spirit. This gives all sports teams the same amount of kids homecoming week brings in for football.

The only people attending the games are mostly the parents of the players. These teams miss out on the feeling of students cheering them on. With at least one home game with a spirit theme and the sports teams’ social media promoting the game, we can get more students to support their classmates’ sports teams.

The only other school dance at MSD is prom, which only seniors can attend. Often, freshman, sophomore and juniors feel like they miss out on prom. With a spirit week for prom, all students can join in on the fun of prom without attending the actual dance. This gives MSD students the excitement of spirit week at the beginning of the school year and the end of the school year.

The goal of adding additional spirit weeks and sports themes throughout the year at MSD is to bring students together at school and school sport events. Spirit week and sport game themes give people something to look forward to, whether you are a player on the sports teams or you are attending the games for support.