Showing Some Spirit

Scholarship. Leadership. Service

SHOWING SOME SPIRIT // A SNAPSHOT OF THE MOST SPIRITED WEEK IN THE YEAR

Every year, about six weeks into the school year, the CCHS hallways become filled with all sorts of characters. Professional athletes, Disney characters, and cardboard-clad figures are a small handful of the get-ups our students don in the throes of Fall Spirit Week. This week is a special one—for new students, this is one of the first moments they get immersed in the unique Covenant community, and for seasoned students and teachers, the week is a chance to support school traditions.

We take on a lot of persional “ The Fall Spirit Week has three main components: dress-up days, hallway decorating, and powderpuff football. All three things create a week where all students can participate and contribute to the festive, creative environment bouncing around the halls. Prior to Spirit Week, student council chooses and announces initiative... themes for dress-up days and class-divided hallway themes. This allows for students to prepare outfits and for entire grades to put it shows investment. “ their heads together and plan elaborate hallway decorations for Friday. Rachel Shaughnessy (‘22) sees the dress-up days and hallways decorating as unique cultural points at Covenant, making the entire week inclusive and fun. “Students who have the most fun and end up creating the coolest costumes don’t care about how other students think about them, so everyone ends up having more fun.” While she enjoys dressing up—days this year included cardboard/DIY outfits and tropical/tourism costumes—she has also been integral in her class hallway decorating planning and execution, which she appreciates for the special ways it allows students to operate and express themselves.

“It’s a lot of fun, and I think it’s unique from a lot of other activities that we do here. We take on a lot of personal initiative, so however much each student and class takes on, it shows investment. We don’t

This year, the theme was different Disney franchises. In recent years, hallway themes have been travel destinations, ancient empires, and holidays. Students stay late after school on Thursday to put everything up. Teachers and staff vote to rank each hallway, and the award is announced during the day. Then, everything is cleaned up by the time everyone leaves school on Friday afternoon. It’s a lot of effort for a temporary experience, but students always do great work.

Friday also brings the marquee event of Spirit Week: powderpuff football. Classes end early and the entire school assembles near the soccer field. Class colors are everywhere. Each class fields a team of girls that take to the gridiron for a tournament-style flag football game. Physical Education teacher Scott Flatt has served as emcee for the event for many years, and he sees the event as a distinct Covenant experience.

“The unifying nature of the week, getting each class together through the events, really gets to our emphasis on community as a school. I think it’s unique that our major Spirit Week event is focused around the girls of the school. When you look at athletics, typically guys sports get more support, and yet I think it’s pretty cool that we focus the main event on the girls. I love how excited the guys get in their support of the girls in their class. It helps with that unification, that they’re out there celebrating and getting excited for their female classmates.”