Based on the title, this sounds too good to be true. What other school’s Spirit Week brings you intense dodgeball games, Zorb soccer, apple juice and coloring books, and Noah Jacobs running through the gym in a red Speedo? Well, I can’t say for sure, but I believe events such as these take place only at College Prep. “CPS overworks its students,” people say…but I could practically see stress evaporate and worry lines disappear as I watched my peers scribble with crayons and sip from juice boxes on Little Kid Day. True, we’ve got a difficult workload most of the time, but thanks to the hard work of Spirit Committee and the help of StuCo, Spirit Week was a total blast!
The week (well, three days) kicked off on Wednesday with Heroes Vs. Villains Day. Each age group was given a basic category within the aforementioned theme: freshmen were Everyday Heroes (doctors, military, and others deemed heroic by the class of 2019), sophomores were Undead (were the dark circles under the vampires’ eyes painted on or was there an essay due?), juniors were Outlaws (oh, so much flannel), and seniors were Secret Agents (trench coats abundant: where did they find trench coats in 2015?!). Faculty claimed the Superheroes/Supervillains theme. Sadly, many of our beloved teachers didn’t dress for it, but Darth Chabon was hard to miss, as was the Star Wars music blasting for much of the day.
During break on Wednesday, our beloved Spirit Week tradition, Zorb soccer, was continued. In this bizarre twist on soccer, the players run around in giant inflated sphere-things (really, how does one describe Zorb soccer?). As far as I know, the rules are the same as regular soccer, with one critical addition: you can bowl over the other people as much as you like. In the first round, the sophomores beat the freshmen with a 4-0 victory. The next round, juniors vs. seniors, was closer, but the seniors triumphed. These results pitted the seniors against the sophomores in a tense, nail-biting game. Would the seniors carry on their legacy of destroying the underclassmen in everything during Spirit Week? No! The sophomores somehow clinched a tight victory over the seniors, to everyone’s astonishment.
At lunch all three days, the grades faced off in some intense dodgeball games. Wednesday was seniors vs. freshmen – and surprise, surprise, the seniors won. Shocking, I know. Thursday brought the juniors a victory against the sophomores, but on Friday, the seniors failed to assert their dominance in a heartbreaking loss to 2017. Better luck next time!
photography by Allie C.
Thursday, the second day of Spirit Week, had the all-school theme of Little Kid Day. Everyone was encouraged to break out the mismatched clothes, pigtails, and pajamas and get ready for some G-rated fun. By break, there was a bouncy house on the music lawn and huge cases of juice boxes and packaged snack foods (Cheez-its and Oreos seemed to be a favorite among the student body) residing in the courtyard. Then the tricycle races commenced. Is there any sight quite like teens riding large tricycles while laughing and clothed in footie pajamas? Oh, I doubt it. Dozens of students stood in crowds watching their friends make fools of themselves attempting to pedal those tricycles. For the less three-wheeled-vehicle-inclined people, a table covered in paper and crayons stood by the Admissions Office. Little Kid Day was a resounding success full of stress relievers, giggles, and foods high in sugar.
After school on Thursday, it was time for each grade to go into crazy-productive-overdrive mode to deck out their designated portion of campus in colorful decorations. The next day, the effort exerted into making campus fabulous was plain to see. Freshmen put black balloons and streamers all over the science building. Sophomores strung caution tape up and down the gym steps and painted yellow 2018s on the gym doors. Juniors used gym mats, their tank tops, and several other forms of blue decorations to beautify the music lawn. And, well, the seniors completed their senior task of thoroughly outdoing everyone else in decorating. Where do I even start? Walking up the path to the courtyard Friday morning, I was hit by a wave of red. Everywhere, there were scarlet paper plates listing the various accomplishments of individual seniors. A red truck sat in the center of the courtyard, below the innumerable red streamers bedecking every banister, railing, stairwell, and balcony. Well done everyone, but the seniors outshone the rest of the student body.
And finally…it was RALLY DAY! Friday! The Spirit Week rally last year was one of the highlights of being a CPS student for me as a freshman. I couldn’t wait to experience the hysteria and cacophony again. The banner contest, the seniors winning everything, and the class pride were just some of the amazing elements of the rally in 2014. I was raring to go, and my expectations were even surpassed by this year’s fantastic rally.
As each class filed into the gym, decked out in black (2019), yellow (2018), and blue (2017), I wondered vaguely where the seniors were before I remembered that there was a grand entrance on the way. Never, ever, did I suspect that 2016 would dream up something so amazing. Jacob L, a member of Spirit Committee, said into the mic that we were having a “special guest…and his name is…JOHN CENA!” As Cena’s music blasted, Noah J burst through the gym doors wearing a red cape and a red Speedo and started to run laps. Moments later, more doors flew open and dozens of red-clad seniors poured into the room, chanting and cheering. The deafening, wildly intense entrance will not soon be forgotten (especially the parting of the red sea).
Once each class was more or less calmed down (by which I mean that the screaming was at something like 100 decibels instead of a million), Spirit Committee kicked off the rally with relay races, limbo, and Hungry Hungry Hippos. As tradition mandated, the seniors won each event (totally legit, of course). Why, in Hippos, the senior team collected something like 52 balloons out of the 40-ish available! Clearly, they’re just really good at that game. In the screaming competition, decibel levels well exceeded 150, with the seniors destroying every other student’s ears.
The banner contest gave each grade an opportunity to devise clever slogans or messages with their graduation year…or, in the case of the freshman class, to choke and scrawl “2019: i cri evrytiem” across a big white sheet of paper. The other grades showed a bit more initiative (with all due respect to 2019, because their meme usage was excellent). Sophomores used the slogan “INVINC18LE,” juniors took “DYNAM17E,” and the seniors claimed “16NITE.”
Finally, the bell for 3rd period sounded, and just like that, the long-awaited rally was over, leaving us 60 minutes older, ten times deafer, and hoarse-voiced. In my opinion, there’s really no better way to spend an hour. Thank you Spirit Committee, StuCo, faculty and staff, and students for the latest, greatest Spirit Week!
Photography by Allie C.
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