In my freshman year of high school, only a few months in, I went to my first high school football game. I went with my friends, not exactly having high expectations. When I arrived, I was stunned by the sheer amount of people in attendance: all dutifully dressed in white as per tradition. The energy was high, even as the score tilted against us, and the crowd seemed engaged and excited. When halftime hit, the dance team, cheer teams, and drumline put on their show, amping up the already electric environment. And then: gone.
After the halftime show, the stands were abandoned. No one except a couple freshmen lingered behind. Even the pep band left the scene as soon as they finished with their performance. I was surprised, to say the least. What happened? Didn’t people want to know the outcome of the game? Didn’t we want to stay to support our athletes? Does New Trier High School really have pride in their sports teams, or at all?
When it comes to school pride, one should never overlook clubs and other non-sport related extracurriculars. As a part of New Trier’s stage crew, I would say that it is one of the strongest communities I’ve been a part of, and there is a bond between the members. We all support each other, and we are proud to say we are a part of stage crew.
Interviewing fellow stage crew member junior Ben Walsh, I asked if he felt like a part of the stage crew community. He replied, “Definitely in stage crew. We have a group.”
When I asked him more broadly about his school pride as a whole, rather than his pride in his clubs, he stated, “I think people take pride in the school… with the Green Team names and stuff being symbolic of that.”
I also interviewed freshman Mia D’Arco to get the thoughts of someone fairly new to the school. She experienced the same phenomenon as I did in her first couple months at New Trier, and commenting about the homecoming football game she said, “The stands were packed. I almost had to stand because there were no seats left.”
So, if the football games are so popular, why do most people leave at halftime?
“I think a lot of people leave because they’re bored or the game is dragging on… but when I left there were still a lot of people in the stands,” D’Arco commented.
She also brought up an experience she had with attending a girls flag football game recently.
“There were still a ton of people attending the game, even in a lesser known sport,” she noted.
I began to wonder then about school pride in other North Shore high schools. Did they have similar opinions and experiences to us, or is New Trier unique in its emphasis on pride in clubs, sports, and extracurriculars?
To get some answers, I interviewed Glenbrook South High School senior Zellie Hammond. I discovered that she was a part of the GBS improv show. She reflected, “These are my people. I feel important here.” When asked about school pride as a whole, she commented on the sudden resurgence of pride, centered around the incoming freshman.
“For the first three years I was here, it seemed like nobody cared. The football games were lackluster, and not even the student body went to their own events…but this year the freshmen that joined the student body seem like they care.”
Overall, it seems that GBS has a similar atmosphere to NT with its strengths in specific clubs and activities, and there has been a recent increase in school pride in GBS as a whole due to the positive attitudes of this year’s freshmen.
In the end, why does this matter? All three students reported that they thought being a part of a community and having pride in one’s school is important. The New Trier students expressed pride in their school and its achievements in sports, academic prowess, and extensive club network, and said they felt like a community in their chosen activity.
School pride, it seems, comes from engagement in activities the student truly loves. What you get out of New Trier comes directly from the effort and passion you put in, and students here work hard every day for the betterment of themselves, their community, and their school.