Leadership hosts first Spring Fling spirit week since 2019; dance nixed for low ticket sales

Junior Kayla Steele gains territory running with the ball during the Falconpuff championship game. The juniors were matched up against the seniors, who ultimately won 14-0.

The annual Spring Fling spirit week, put together by the Rally and Spirit Commissions, kicked off on March 28, with Jersey Day and the final game of March Madness basketball on Monday; Falconpuff on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; and Inflatable Day and the Night Rally on Friday.

The biggest disappointment for organizers was that the dance planned for Saturday was canceled because of low ticket sales. Only 90 of the 160 tickets required for the dance to proceed were sold.

Senior Spirit Commissioner Johnny Hulme speculated that the low sales were due to a combination of factors: Since the dance was going to be more casual, upperclassmen were more focused on the upcoming prom and underclassmen weren’t as familiar with indoor dances. 

Even with the dance’s failure, Spring Fling featured a number of notable changes and successes, including changing the name from the name from Powderpuff to Falconpuff and adding a night rally. 

The Rally Commission’s rebranded gender inclusive Falconpuff allowed for all genders to take part in the flag football and cheerleading aspects of the event. This modified the former Powderpuff, an annual school tradition that dated back to the ‘90s and featured female flag football players and male cheerleaders. 

“We changed the name from Powderpuff to Falconpuff because the old name emphasized gender norms and we wanted to make it more inclusive to everyone,” senior Rally Commissioner Rima Christie said. “This year and years moving forward, we really want to emphasize that anyone can participate in these two activities, not just people who only identify as he/him or she/her.”

The rebranding of Powderpuff to Falconpuff followed Spirit Commission’s piloting of the school’s first gender neutral Homecoming court earlier this year.

Falconpuff began on Tuesday where the juniors faced the freshmen; the game ended with a 0-0 score, but the juniors advanced to the championship round as the freshmen lost more yardage from fumbling the ball. The seniors beat the sophomores 14-0 on Wednesday, and then defeated the juniors 14-0 on Thursday for the championship round. 

“I have had a lot of fun playing football with my grade and all of my friends,” Christie said. “I love being on the field when the sun is out — it honestly is just my perfect day.”

For Inflatable Day, the Spirit Commission and activities secretary Anna Ybarra secured an obstacle course and an inflatable vortex for students to play on during lunch. 

The Rally Commission also organized a Night Rally, the first in around 10 years, according to Christie. Night Rallies were an idea that she, along with other applicants, had brought up when applying to be a part of Rally Commission, so the event had been long anticipated. 

The planning began a month prior, when the commission came up with the theme of Squid Game, along with the overall vision for the event. They then filmed a promotion video, made decorations, coordinated the tailgate and practiced run-throughs of the rally.

“I always loved rallies when I was a freshman because all of the grades had a lot of energy and hype, so I wanted to create that again this year for these students and hope they had a lot of fun,” Christie said. “Since it was indoors, the classes were able to see one another and feed off each other’s energy, especially the underclassmen who saw how excited the upperclassmen got during the rally and tried to match that.”

The event was also the first indoor rally of the year, meaning all of the leadership class worked on creating decorations, preparing for the tailgate and posting on social media to hype up the event.

“We hoped having this indoor rally would boost some school spirit because there is a completely different vibe indoor compared to outdoor, and we really wanted people to enjoy our rallies and cheer on their friends as they participated in games and dances,” Christie said.

Still, after organizing the first Spring Fling Week since the pandemic began, the seniors were happy to re-experience the fun they had in their freshman year.

“Our students work incredibly hard in their academics, and we have these events so they can take a break and hang out with their friends and do fun activities,” Christie said.