Let’s travel back to Greeley at the dawn of the 21st century.
Greeley students occupy the gym for the Homecoming dance. Students in fancy tuxedos and delicate dresses are the spotlights of the night. The evening before, a Powderpuff football battle took place between the junior and senior female athletes on the crowd-packed athletic field. The following Friday night, students will attend the Coffeehouse, an event where student-led bands compete in the cafeteria as the audience enjoys freshly-brewed coffee.
Two decades ago, Greeley students regularly immersed themselves in such social gatherings. But these events are now entirely foreign to the Greeley students of 2022, who have shown increasingly less interest in club activities, Spirit Week, and pep rallies. Some even elect to skip these activities altogether. Why is that? Where did the Homecoming dance, the Powderpuff football games, and the Coffeehouse go? Who stole Greeley’s spirit?
To answer this question, I interviewed Ms. Karlson, a Greeley math teacher who has been a member of the Greeley community since 2000. Her answer was straightforward: “COVID didn’t help. It certainly had a piece in hitting the brakes of the Greeley spirit trajectory.” Although COVID-19 is gradually becoming an obsolete topic, its impact has been long-lasting and is unlikely to dwindle anytime soon.
In the spring of 2020, students were suddenly separated from each other by an invisible microbe army. Mass social gatherings became virtually impossible, and bonds between students began to fizzle. Even when school reopened, mask mandates and social distance guidelines prevented large-scale events such as the pep rally from taking place. In fact, we are still forced to abide by several COVID rules and restrictions today. For instance, Homecoming, the once iconic school tradition, did not escape the pandemic’s grasp, while the popular holiday band and orchestra concert that was attended by all faculty and students is nowhere to be found. Likewise, the first day of school assembly is still split in two, though it used to be a united celebration for all grades as they returned to school.
COVID-19 has also completely altered social norms. What people deemed to be standard social events in the pre-COVID age have now become unusual occurrences that many give the cold shoulder to. Take the pep rally, for example. Ms. Karlson pointed out that pep rallies used to be well attended, and there was even a bonfire. Yet today, Greeley students’ enthusiasm for the pep rally has declined, and some even view the once all-time student favorite event to be a burden that occupies a free period; many choose to skip the rally in order to spend time studying in the library or hanging out with friends. To confess, even my friends and I found ourselves unmotivated to attend last year’s rally.
However, there’s an interesting phenomenon that many students and teachers have observed: the Greeley sports spirit has well-survived the blows of COVID-19. As a member of the Greeley basketball program, I see no decline in the Greeley sports spirit. During the 2021-2022 winter sports season, excitement and enthusiasm were never lacking for my team. On game days, we dressed up in our team jerseys and encouraged our friends to come and watch us compete. Although the stands weren’t packed, we never failed to have fans cheering us on during intense moments. It seems that the sports spirit is indestructible because all it needs to power through turbulence is a handful of passionate fans and an everlasting love for the game. Eric Carnes, a Greeley sophomore on the varsity soccer team, suggests that the sports community has been structured to foster bonds between teammates and sustain athletes’ enthusiasm for their sports.
However, this brings us to another critical issue: not everyone “fits” into the sports community. Math teacher Ms. Wrenn concurs, “due to the contrast between the popularity of athletic events and the lack of social events in the arts, artsy students may feel excluded.” Hence, we must ensure the Greeley spirit extends to all communities and interest groups.
How do we achieve this? How can we revive the dwindling Greeley spirit?
First and foremost, it is up to the student body government to actively promote school-wide spirit. As Ms. Karlson puts it, “[The student body government] should help foster a better sense of positive community outreach.” One way to achieve this would be to not only advertise social events via school announcements and the Student Life page but also send emails directly to students, teachers, and parents. As a student, I find emails directly sent to me far more pressing in comparison to distant morning announcements.
Next, we need concrete plans. For instance, increased usage of special schedules would allow events to take place without conflicting with academic classes. Ms. Wrenn remarks, “I’m not sure if all teachers will be too happy about the alternative schedules, but these arrangements will surely allow the community to come together.”
Despite the challenges, the Greeley spirit is not doomed to vanish. Efforts have already been made to instill morale back into the community. Sam Tainsky, Student Body President, assured me that “the top priority of the student body government is to bring back pre-Covid events that halted because of the pandemic.”
In fact, student government has already successfully brought back the Homecoming dance. On October 15th, the gym was once again filled with games, activities, drinks, music played by a DJ, and enthusiastic students from all grade levels.
The return of this beloved tradition, punctuated with novel elements, may very well herald the revival of Greeley’s school spirit.