Despite the general idea of competition that comes every year with the Spirit Bowl, the underlying theme of the event is the idea of bringing the school closer together.
Every year, the entire school gathers in the gym to compete for the title of best class. This assembly is considered to be one of the most important assemblies because most other assemblies split the school into two different groups due to lack of room in the auditorium. The Spirit Bowl is one of the only assemblies that has the whole school all in one room.
Unfortunately, this year is much different. This year’s Spirit Bowl has been scheduled for a day that happens to have many conflicts with other Highland events that require student attendance. During this time of unity shouldn’t all of our Rams be given an equal chance to attend?
The main conflict that the Spirit Bowl is presenting to our school is the fact that it is the same day as the biggest swim meet of the year, the state meet.
Not only would we have less attendance at the Spirit Bowl itself but this conflict will make these Rams at their other events not feel as valued because everyone will be forced to attend the Spirit Bowl rather than their event.
“Back in April when we planned Spirit Week we checked the calendar and this was the absolute best time to do it. It is really really hard to work around everything,” Spirit Chair Ofeina Clark said.
Considering the situation, many have said that changing the week of spirit week altogether could help remedy the problem. This could present an issue to our student government but that would be a small price to pay for for increasing school spirit.
Even if this change presented more work for the student officers, that should not be an issue. The job of the student government is to help the entire student body and make sure everyone has equal support and opportunity.
Other athletes sympathized with the swimmers.
“Wrestling is important but so is being a Ram and I want to be able to represent my class at the Spirit Bowl but if my meet fell on the same day, I’d be really upset,” varsity wrestler Colin Sierer said.
It was originally thought that there would be a wrestling meet the same day but the schedule narrowly avoided that added conflict. Wrestlers were relieved to find that they would not have to compete with the Spirit Bowl for student attendance.
There is a lot that goes into Spirit Week and there will always be conflicts with an event of that magnitude, but there are definitely ways to avoid such conflicts. Better ways to avoid an issue like this would be to consult coaches and captains of our sport teams before the planning even begins, but coaches also have to do a better job posting dates. When the Spirit Bowl was originally being planned, officers made their rounds and asked coaches to post their events on the school calendar.
That is not to say the student body officers do not boost school spirit because they definitely do. They are a constant at all school events, big or small. That sometimes is not enough though. Increased communication with the student body would go a long way. Not only would that have helped avoid scheduling conflicts with the Spirit Bowl but it would make everyone happier and able to participate in school events more easily.
The best possible outcome is to make a fun and friendly environment for all the students at this school.  The best way to make everyone comfortable is to make them all feel equal. To make Highland the best it can be we have to show how unified our school really is.