Blake Thorburn

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Spirit Week. In light of the past few years’ catastrophes, many people had low expectations coming back from March Break including this own news sources’ Head. However, by separating the competitions by house rather than grade built on the finely established and enthusiastic house system, pitting house against house rather than expecting Year 1’s to have any shred of hope in winning against IB2’s in capture the flag or dodge ball.

Casual Dress

Casual Dress is always appreciated by all: for some it’s the opportunity to role out of bed 5 minutes later and wear sweatpants all day, for some it’s the chance to flaunt their parents’ money on expensive clothing brands, and for some it’s even the opportunity to wear their athletic UCC team sweaters in an attempt to prove to the general UCC population that they do in fact play sports. Regardless of the way it’s used, a week of casual dress was a perfect idea to return to the grind after getting all too used to the relaxed nature of March Break.

 

All- Star Basketball

From the uneducated perspective, the Student’s basketball team may have looked like they had as much chance at winning as getting a 7 in HL Literature; apart from a loveable swole Ecuadorian IB2 and “Golden-boy Archibald”, the student team’s general scrawny little bodies in contrast to Heffernan, Harnack, and Verboom made many wonder if murder on the basketball court would hold up in the court of law as manslaughter or not. However, through passionate playing, an extremely one-sided crowd, and Anthony’s invention of the “6-point basketball shot,” the students were able to clinch the win in a nail-biting finish. School spirit? Check mark.

 

Dodgeball

Dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge. Who doesn’t love it.

 Trivia

Trivia was great because it show-cased the vast knowledge some students have in many facets of geography, pop culture and UCC history. It allowed for the houses to show some love to the intellectuals rather than the usual focus on athletics determining who wins the prefect cup. All of the intelligent kids, and those who thought they were smart until they went up on stage… honestly who knows the capital of Australia… made for a pretty hype atmosphere in Laidlaw.

 Cheer

The Cheer was definitely the least anticipated, most interesting day of the week. With side comments such as “how is a boy’s school expected to do a cheer” and “Branksome rehearses for months, Blake wrote this in period 3 Biology,” the cheers all generally followed a similar pattern of changing a few words from some hit 90’s songs to fit into the house theme. What really determined the winner, however, was the execution, ranging from the clever heart-string pulling Wedd’s cheer all the way down to… Martlands. After a dope backflip and a few voice cracks from people who shall remain nameless, Seaton’s decided it would be a good idea to stand up on the benches. Turns out, you can’t do that. Overall, the cheer definitely went surprisingly well all things considered, and has the potential for next year’s to be far more structured and planned when the heads of houses know what to expect.

The stewards should be commended for having the ingenuity and perception to assess the flaws of last year’s spirit week and creating an event that raises the school’s spirits to the Golden Days of five years ago. One can only hope that next year’s stewards have a similar drive to use their power to hype up the students and carry on the tradition of spirit week.