After a week filled with inclement weather, stress, and standardized testing, the Seniors won New Castle High School’s Spirit Week.
This is the Class of 2021’s 2nd Spirit Week victory, and they are the 2nd class to receive the Trojan Spirit Stick that was introduced during last year’s spirit week.
Spirit Week was sponsored by Renaissance. The major storyline coming into this year’s spirit week was if the Sophomores (Class of 2023) could repeat as Spirit Week champions after a dominating showing last year, or if the Seniors (Class of 2021) could avenge their loss and make it a 2nd Spirit Week win in 3 years, having also won in 2019.
With the ongoing pandemic still lurking, this meant that many changes would need to be made for Spirit Week. The ongoing testing also played its hand into shaking up Spirit Week. There was no hallway decorating contest to kick off the week’s activities. There was also no mini-rally to conclude Spirit Week.
“ISTEP definitely affected Spirit Week. It was difficult to get the dress up count. The weather also played a factor in Spirit Week,” said Teacher Karen Foster. Foster is the sponsor of the Renaissance club.
Some of the old favorites, however, still appeared. There were still the popular Penny Wars and dress-up days, but also some new activities. These new activities included daily Trojan Trivia questions, a door decoration contest, and a drawing contest.
Trojan Trivia ended up proving to be a hit with students, according to Foster.
“It was fun to learn interesting facts about the staff,” Foster said. “We may expand it next year to students.”
The dress-up days for this edition for Spirit Week was Pajama Day on Monday, Neon Day on Tuesday, Camo Day on Wednesday, College Day on Thursday, and Trojan Spirit Day to wrap it all up on Friday.
This unorthodox Spirit Week provoked some reactions from students who felt like the testing going on during the week hampered their mood.
“I feel like testing made it a little less enjoyable; however, although it was an enjoyable Spirit Week,” Junior Matt Gerth said. “I feel like the activities need to change a little because it’s always the same dress up days.”
“It was enjoyable,” Sophomore Chloe Davis said. “The schedule was just weird!”
At the end of Monday, the Seniors and the Freshmen were tied for first place in the overall standings with sixteen points each, with the Seniors standing alone on top of the Penny Wars standings. Tuesday ended with the Juniors surprisingly taking the lead in the overall standings with thirty-six points, an announcement which led some to consider if the Juniors could actually make an improbable run for the Spirit Stick.
That idea, however, was squashed on Wednesday when the Sophomores leapfrogged every class to go from last to first in the standings, nine points ahead of the second-place Seniors. On the Penny War front, the Seniors were still holding on to a decisive lead with a six dollar advantage over the Freshmen, The virtual learning day on Thursday extended the Sophomores’ advantage to twelve points over the Seniors. Everything looked set for the Sophomores to go back-to-back.
Even without the mini-rally, Friday was the most anticipated day of Spirit Week. A final push disposed of the Seniors from the top of the Penny Wars standings, with the Class of 2021 falling to last with -$39.02. This allowed the Sophomores, who had been in last for most of the week, to capture Penny Wars with -$1.49 in change. With the door decorating contest, the Freshmen gained twenty-five points from two rooms while Seniors picked up ten points from one room. The Seniors also brought home the prize of twenty points for the drawing contest.
At the end of Spirit Week, it was a close battle for the Spirit Stick. The Juniors finished in last, while Sophomores, the defending champions, settled for third place. By only four points, the Seniors eked out the Freshmen to take the Spirit Stick and to win Spirit Week by a score of 130 to 126.
The Seniors can now close out their high school career to be defending Spirit Week champions.
