Despite the combined efforts of Senate and Student Government, Clash of the Clubs turned out to be a total flop when it came to audience appeal. Though many of Highland High’s clubs are amazing and represent the hard work of students that run them, the assembly didn’t do a good job of showcasing them.

“No one knew what they were doing,” said Hanna Richards, Sophomore Secretary.

Much of the way the assembly was laid out made it hard to understand what was happening and when. This resulted in many people finding other things to do such as sleep, play on their phones, or in the case of one section of boys, throw water at the people in front of them. The seating was divided into sections, similar to Sprit Week, with student-led (green) and school-sponsored (purple) clubs, and sections for HAM and HAW. Presumably, these sections were supposed to be competing with one another, but the actual competition was between random groups of students. Beyond that, there wasn’t really any score-keeping or any overall winner. It made it difficult to stay engaged.

Despite the “Clash of Clubs” name, people at the assembly weren’t grouped into their clubs, but were instead combined together, and the leaders got very little time to share what’s unique and noteworthy about their club. During the assembly, there was no opportunity for people who might want to join a club to talk to members, ask questions, or join the club.

Sophomore Jon Lambert said, “I’m all for supporting clubs, but this format is not easy to get behind.”

It was pretty clear by the end of the event that the students had lost interest. An attempt to stage a dance contest resulted in almost everyone just leaving the gym. The event organizers realize that things could have gone better.

“We could have done better and had more activities that everyone could participate in,” said SBO President Valeti Fonua.

I’ve been involved in student government and I realize that they work very hard to please the student body and hold fun events. When students are apathetic and distracted, there’s unlikely to be any improvement, so let’s give the student government officers our support.

I believe that with a few minor changes, Clash of the Clubs could be a great opportunity for students to get more involved and make progress toward the school’s “pick two” goal.

I recommend:

1. Have students who are in a club sit with the members of that club.
2. Give the clubs more opportunity to share with the attendees, and have an area for each club to hang a sign and congregate.
3. Let the members of different clubs compete against each other. It might be fun to have competitions where club members can showcase their special talents. You could even ask the clubs to create or sponsor a particular event. If they’d have an unfair advantage, that might actually make it more fun.