As homecoming week approaches, school spirit is on everyone’s mind. Pep Club organizes dress up days and raffles. There’s the homecoming football game against Waukegan and the next night, the Candyland themed Homecoming Dance. But the question is, does New Trier really have school spirit?

We have plenty of school pride, that’s for sure. All the students are proud to be from New Trier, to be from “that school” that everyone else hates yet also wants to be a part of. We pride ourselves in our North Shore problems, in our two campuses, our huge population, our unusual test scores, our lack of parking spaces, our white gowns and tuxes for graduation, and everything else that makes us unique. We will stick up for New Trier when kids from other schools trash us, and then we trash our school among our classmates.

But when it comes to school spirit, do we all participate because we love New Trier so much, or is it more out of peer pressure? During Spirit Week, do we always wear our red, white, and blue or wacky outfits because of our excessive spirit, or because we don’t want to feel like the odd one out? Our cult-like Green Team wears their sweatshirts on Fridays and teams wear Hawaiian shirts on game days. But in past years for spirit week, it seems like everyone has worn minimal amounts of spirited clothing: enough to participate but not enough to stand out. Some complain that themes aren’t accommodating or that they don’t know what the right costume would be. Most don’t even realize it’s spirit week. Overall, most people just don’t care enough to truly go all-out, and they don’t want to show up at school to discover that no one else is participating.

The one day that draws the most participation is the school spirit theme on Friday, where everyone wears their class colors. Most kids come clad in green, blue, or gray for the homecoming football game, but unlike other schools, there aren’t streamers, face paint, crazy socks, or anything else that goes above and beyond.

While New Trier’s history with spirit week hasn’t been stellar, it is always the most school spirit that we see during the year. Though Fridays are meant to be “blue and green days,” people don’t abide by that. The seniors wear their Green Team sweatshirts on Fridays, but the other grades don’t come in New Trier attire, and seniors wear normal clothing under their sweatshirts for when they inevitably become warm. So, the semi-participation with spirit week is the largest show of solidarity among New Trier students during the year.

Even our school spirit towards sports teams is selective. Only a few teams have a strong audience base- football, soccer, lacrosse, hockey. Other than those, the average game, match, or meet doesn’t draw a huge crowd of fellow classmates, except maybe some good friends there to cheer them on.

On the other hand, the first home football game drew a larger crowd than ever expected, so much that there are now strict regulations for entry and exit from the student section. This year’s Green Team has been regulated by the school, and now has tons of participation from the senior class. During spirit week, there are some who really go all-out, though it’s not the norm.

So while our school spirit my not be totally up to par, we more than make up for it with our excessive school pride. But this spirit week, dress up and show how proud you are to be from New Trier.