This year C-SC Student Life and the C-SC Cheer Team partnered up to run the Spirit Stick Showdown with fun week-long team based activities to raise school spirit. Both Cheryl Coulson, Coordinator of Student Engagement and Kaitlin Tait, Cheer Coach, were satisfied with participation in the inaugural event.
“We had 9 teams participate this year,” said Coulson. The teams that participated in the Showdown were Lambda Chi Alpha (Lambda); the Cheer Team; the 6-7 Slayers; Sigma Kappa; Chi Omega; Delta Upsilon (DU); Women’s Lacrosse; The Barbs; and Black Student Union (BSU). The reward for winning the Spirit Stick Showdown was the Spirit Stick made by the Cheer Team. This year was described by Coulson as “a large decorated PVC-style “trophy” that symbolizes school pride, spirit, and unity. It’s big, bold, and meant to be seen at events!”
As a way to jumpstart the Spirit Stick Showdown on Sunday the 19th, a campfire themed kick-off was held to celebrate the beginning of Homecoming. More events and school-wide activities were held throughout the week for the teams to compete for the Spirit Stick.
Coach Tait described some of the events: “A spirit banner contest where teams decorated large banners that were displayed in the cafeteria for the week of Homecoming, a sidewalk chalk contest we called the “Chalk-A-Thon”, a team trivia night hosted in the Cat’s Pause Lounge, a tug-of-war tournament between all of the teams, a campus-wide photo scavenger hunt called “Willie’s Wild Photo Hunt”, and a lip-sync battle held in the Performing Arts Center. We also held a week long canned food drive where the teams collected almost 2,000 canned food items.”
The Spirit Stick was won by Sigma Kappa. The expectation with the Spirit Stick is that the winning group bring it to every sporting event they attend to lead in crowd chants, cheers, and keep student engagement high while the game is happening on the field or court. It was also created to be decorated with trinkets or decorations of each year’s winners to build its history and evolve its symbol of school spirit. This is in hopes to get more students involved, displaying more pride at every game.
While the Spirit Stick Showdown was happening, the school held an election to vote for Homecoming King and Queen alongside student and staff royalties
The Winners were:
Homecoming Queen: Delaney Straus
Homecoming King: Caleb Gardner
Senior: Princess Marianna Fredricks | Prince Rommarrus Hinson
Junior: Princess Victoria Pollard | Prince Jacob Terry
Sophomore: Princesses Angela Uhl & Ariella Bradley
Freshman: Princess Emily Albert | Prince Xander Brown
Staff: Queen Kelli Stiles | King Tyler Tomlinson
As best described by Coulson when asked what Homecoming means to the school, “Homecoming is the heart of our school on display — a celebration of where we’ve been, who we are, and the community we continue to build. It brings together students, alumni, families, and fans to honor our shared Wildcat pride.”
