Sports have always been a huge part of our school and our community, bringing students, parents, staff and families together to cheer on our school. Whether it’s football games on Friday nights or basketball games in the packed gym, our energetic student section always shows up with spirit. Led by the Hype Squad, all of our students always show up dressed to impress. Sports themes have always been a fun way for students at our school to show school spirit and root on our Patriots to victory, creating a fun atmosphere for students to show their school pride.
From fall to spring, you can find the student section filled with students all dressed in theme, ranging from bright neon to sporting the American flag in red, white and blue. But as the generic themes get recycled in the move from football to basketball to hockey, questions have arisen: are these themes getting stale and should we rethink them?
Every season the Hype Squad picks the themes for each game, posting them on the Hype Squad Instagram page, letting students know the attire for the next game. These themed outfits are meant to bring energy, unity and school spirit to the crowd. But once these themes have been re-used throughout the years and through the fall, winter and spring seasons, it’s hard not to feel like we are just reusing ideas at this point, making these themes a bit boring and generic.
Themes such as white-out and black-out have become staples of Friday Night Lights. These themes have always been a part of school spirit, and have become somewhat of a tradition at our school. While it is important to keep some of these themes to preserve that tradition at our school, it would be a fun change to incorporate some fun, new spirit wear ideas to the mix to add a little more excitement to sporting events. Our school’s pride runs deep and our traditions matter, but it is time that we add a little creativity to the mix?
Although the Hype Squad chooses the themes for each game, it would be fun to allow for student opinions to play a role in deciding new themes. A simple solution to this could be the Hype Squad posting a poll on their Instagram page, allowing for students who follow the account to vote on which themes they would most like to be incorporated into the rotation. This allows for students to have more of a say in what themes to add into the mix and which theme should be chosen for the next game. This would allow for the Hype Squad to choose the most popular dress codes based on what students vote for, allowing for more student input instead of just the Hype Squad determining the themes for our school’s next game.
