Saratoga High. The first words that come to mind are typically academics, over-achievers and stereotypical nerds. Enthusiastic and spirited? Probably not. According to the rally commission, however, things are beginning to change.
Senior and rally commissioner Brandon Pierce feels that “this year, school spirit has picked up a lot. More people turn up at sports games, and sports are the fundamentals of school spirit.”
Despite this recent spirit upswing, compared to other schools, Saratoga High is somewhat lacking.
“A lot of private schools like Mitty have really big spirit days,” senior Leah Capek said. “Spirit [at Saratoga High] definitely went up this year with the Class Cup and rallies and everything, but there’s still room to improve.”
Every year, Archbishop Mitty holds a school pride event called “Monarch Madness.” This involves classes competing against each other with dances, games and all out spirit . Although rally commissioners have not yet discussed next year’s plans in detail, the school might end up hosting some madness of its own.
“We’re moving in that direction already. We have something big planned for one of our rallies in the future,” Pierce said.
Capek also had some ideas on why Saratoga High falters when it comes to school spirit.
“At Saratoga, there are a lot of people with their own extracurriculars,” Capek said. “They have pride in their individual sport and individual classes, but not really in the school as a whole.”
According to the rally commission, this year’s spirit seems to have stemmed from the new class cup and the unprecedented football victory against Los Gatos High School.
“The LG-SHS game made an impact, especially from that point on, with spirit,” Pierce said. “That may have been the ignition, but ever since then, things have been building up.”
In comparison to the Project Cornerstone survey held in May 2007, this year’s survey shows an increased sense of belonging among Saratoga High students.
Some, however, feel that the LG-SHS game was the only instance of school spirit at Saratoga High.
“I’ve only been to one rally this year, and I didn’t like it too much,” said sophomore Liana Riley. “It was mostly just inside jokes with the people on the rally commission, and I didn’t feel like it was anything I needed to see again.”
She does believe that school spirit can be a great thing, “if it’s used in the proper way, and if people rally to get something out of it.”
Capek feels that spirit will improve if more students make an effort to get involved in school activities.
“Part of it is just that students have to appreciate other sports and activities that go on at the school, like football games or Homecoming,” she said. “It’s not that academics is a bad thing, but they need to find a balance.”
Though the rally commission admits that Saratoga High is not exactly at the pinnacle of school spirit, they agree that the students right now are more spirited than in years past.
According to Pierce, there has been a noticeable growth in Falcon spirit since he was a freshman.
“I know that a lot of schools are still more spirited than we are,” he said. “That’s not to say that we won’t get there eventually, though, and I hope we do.”