While Spirit Squad prepares for their annual event – elf a teacher, advisor, Ms. Mazzarella, has stepped in as lead advisor for the Spirit Squad, taking over for Mrs. Davis while she is out on maternity leave.
The role of advisor has seen several faces over the last couple of years. Before Mrs. Davis became the head advisor, Mr. Carroll was the head advisor, stepping down to spend more time with his family. Mrs. Davis, who took over this year as lead advisor after several years as co-advisor, felt that school spirit fell away quite a bit during covid, and has worked hard to bring it back. Mrs. Davis finds joy in making other people happy, and one of the things she thinks is so important in school is fostering a spirit of fun and excitement. Many of the ideas Spirit Squad has worked on, came from Davis.
“I would say our most successful event is usually homecoming. The past two years, close to 500 students have attended. However, last year I also created the idea of the ‘Senior Surprise’ and that was an amazing success as well. I got lots of great feedback, not only from the Class of 2024, but also their families and other members of the community,” said Mrs. Davis.
Now, as Mrs. Mazzarella takes over, she takes on a staple of Spirit Squad – Elfing a room. Elf-a-teacher involves secretly decorating a classroom two weeks before winter break. The idea of this is to surprise a new teacher that has stood out during the year. The teacher is chosen by the Spirit Squad several weeks before.
Mazzarella won’t be alone in putting on this affair, as she will work with several students who have been part of the club for several years.
“Over the years the uplifting spirit has been brought from the Spirit Squad club” said senior Josh Nobitz.
Josh Nobitz has been a part of this club for two years now, and his favorite memories so far from being a part of this club is preparing for pep-rally throughout the years. “It is a very fun club to be a part of. I definitely do recommend joining if you are not already a part of the club. The club allows you to expand and improve your creative ability, along with your social skills with peers you’re close to or getting to know,” said Nobitz.
Spirit Squad organizes several other events besides homecoming and elfing-a-room that happen throughout the school year. A lot of planning goes on during the meetings that take place every Tuesday of each month at 7:10am for students to get creative.
Junior Greyson Vandersloot, a new club member this school year, said, “I really looked forward to the meetings and was happy to be able to help organize a big school event like Homecoming. Since joining this club, it has brought me a lot of spirit within the school.”
Homecoming has been a huge event that Spirit Squad organizes. In the months leading up to Homecoming in October, students choose a committee of their choice to be a part of for the preparation of Homecoming. Each subcommittee has their own purpose: Homecoming spirit week, Homecoming pep-rally, Homecoming football game and Homecoming Dance.
The Homecoming spirit week committee decides on what each spirit day of the week is going to be, leading up to the dance. And the homecoming pep-rally committee creates a few activities that will happen during the pep rally on the Friday before homecoming.
The games in the past have been relay races, foot balloon, lip sync battle, fruit roll up contest and more.
During the pep rally, the Homecoming court winners are announced along with the most spirited student. The court winners receive their sash and the most spirited student receives Morgan merch.
The Homecoming football game committee gathers all the decorations that will be set up around the football field. The decorations are based on what the theme of the football game is. The 2024 Homecoming football game was USA themed. Students wore USA themed clothing and the bleachers were decorated by the club.
The Homecoming dance committee decides the theme of the dance and then decorates the day of the dance of the theme chosen. The committee comes up with a bunch of themes before deciding one, and the most popular three are then put on a Google doc for the committee to then vote for a final decision. The committee sets up the decorations the day of the dance inside and outside the gym based on the theme.
All the spirit weeks that are put on are created around a holiday or a certain week that is celebrating some sort of Morgan school event. The spirit weeks are created by the club coming up with a bunch of possible ideas, then choosing a popular vote of five spirit days. Leading up to Homecoming 2024 the spirit days were Monday: Color wars Tuesday: Country day Wednesday: Neon day Thursday: Denim day Friday: USA day.
As Ms.Mazzarella takes over for the rest of the school year she has high hopes for the club’s success.
