School Spirit, are two words combined into a phrase that creates endless definitions and interpretations. Interviews with some school community members help them grasp what the phrase means and how it differs from other’s views on the subject of school spirit.
Dr. Miehe defined school spirit as, “somebody who just has pride in their school community.” He then continued, “somebody that wants to be active and engaged in their school.” Dr. Miehe can be seen at a variety school events, such as football games, volleyball games, and kickoff to support the students and the school. Similar to Miehe’s statement, Landon Wertz adds, “I’d say school spirit is caring about your school, getting loud when you go to stuff, and pretty much just… getting loud, showing that you actually care.”
Showing school spirit was also defined differently between, Dr. Miehe and Wertz, as to how they show school spirit within the community. Miehe leads off by saying, “try to attend as many events as I can and be supportive of like all the different activities.” He continues, that he tries to be “an active involved part of the community and live less than a mile away and just make sure that I’m here for everything I can be.” While Wertz said that he shows his spirit screaming a lot. “I’ve lost my voice many, many times,” he shares.
Examples of school spirit can be seen through student section leaders, supporting school-based events, and being involved with the school’s community. There are other ways that school spirit can be shown within our school, by being a part of the debate team, JROTC, band, volleyball, National Honors Society, chess club, Spanish club, or even by being a part of Wahawk Insider.
The importance of school spirit is extremely high as it allows for students, staff, and the community to be involved. “I think it’s super important. It makes school fun, like last Friday having the band and the color guard in the hallway,” Miehe states. “Seeing Westy at events when we’ve got the mascot out doing things … that kind of stuff I think is really important.”
“School spirit is something huge,” Wertz states, “I’m going to take the rival, Cedar Falls, for example… When we went to CF and they played volleyball in the new gym. Their student section was so big that they had to take over two sections in another section. And here we are, sure it’s an away game, but it’s just across town, and we’re seven or eight rows deep. It’s just like, what do we do?”
Wertz shows his concern for getting more students involved. “The biggest question for me is, how do I get more people to come to these games and show that we care for our athletes and want to be there and support them?,” he asks. School spirit affects everyone and is highly important as there are concerns about how else will we show that we care about our school spirit, and if we will be able to carry on our school legacy.
There has been a decrease in student section attendance and the spirit being brought within our school and in the stands at games. “I saw a drop off between the East game and then the recent one against Hempstead,” Wertz says. The first Football game against East high School showed a significant amount of school spirit, however it has been noted that there has been a decrease in the amount of people going out to support at the games.
The away games are the most difficult for people to attend. However, Student Section Leaders are seen going and supporting events that are otherwise difficult to attend to. While asked who is most affected by school spirit, Wertz says, “Honestly, I’ve heard form athletes, from like saying they love it when it gets loud and stuff. It helps them. They kind of feed off of it. So I’d say its definitely the athletes we show up for.” When reflecting on his own experience and participation in the student section, Wertz says “but then again, I show up to make memories, and just have a good time. Everybody benefits from it.”
