Students keep one eye on the class cup

The Harry Potter-inspired class cup, introduced in the beginning of the year, has fueled school spirit through the year.

Students can earn spirit points for their class in a variety of ways, such as winning games at rallies and dressing up on spirit days.

Currently, seniors stand in first place with 263 points, juniors in second place with 222 points, sophomores in third place with 107 points and freshmen in fourth place with 53 points.

The added factor of friendly, non-academic competition has juiced up the spirit on campus.

“I think [the class cup] has increased spirit at school because Saratoga can be competitive, and I think kids like a bit of competition between the grades,” junior Zara Sheikh said. “I think since the class cup has been in action, kids have participated more in the spirit days we’ve had.”

Sheikh believes that the cup has given people more initiative to contribute to their respective classes.

“I guess the competition makes dressing up for spirit days more worth [it] because you get something in return for your class,” Sheikh said.

However, some students believe that their peers are not as concerned with the competition itself.
“Our school is probably more interested in the fun aspects of Homecoming and spirit days, rather than focusing on who is winning,” senior Esha Roy said.

Roy feels that it is more important to increase the spirit of the school as a whole, rather than within different grades.

“My main motivations during spirit days, rallies, and Homecoming are to have fun and see what the other grades bring to the table, rather than worry about the competitive part of the whole experience,” Roy said. “Rivalry can be a good thing, but at the end of the day, we want to increase school-wide spirit, rather than divide things up by grade.”

Sophomore class representative Sasan Saadat admits that the competition has fallen under the radar a little.

“[The class cup has] lost its glory a little,” Saadat said. “There’s still a lot of school spirit, [just] not necessarily for class cup.”

Roy believes that perhaps with some more emphasis on the cup, there would be more noticeable competition between classes.

“I think many people forgot the class cup existed, so maybe if it was amped up a bit more, spirit and competition between the classes would be more prevalent,” Roy said.

Roy also said the competition is unlikely to break the trend of seniors winning during their year.

“Most of the time seniors win, so it’s almost an unspoken rule that your grade will win when you reach senior year,” Roy said.

Nevertheless, the competition is an attempt to bring a healthy dose of rivalry to the school scene.

Students will have an opportunity to earn points for their respective classes during Spring Fling week, the first week of April.

There will also be a variety of other spirit days and activities, such as a Class Cup Tournament which spirit commission and rally commission will be hosting at lunch on April 8th. The tournament will include quirky games like those from the TV show “Minute to Win It.”