We Got Spirit

WE GOT SPIRIT

A SPOTLIGHT ON THE ATHLETIC ADVISORY COUNCIL

If you’ve noticed a potent sense of school spirit wafting through the hallways this year, give credit to the student members of the Athletic Advisory Council (AAC). Made up of 10 seniors, three juniors and a sophomore, the AAC’s solitary goal is to raise school spirit and overall pride in being a Husky.

For many of the student members, this is a clawing back from the loss of community caused by the pandemic. They spent the last three years living a much-altered school experience without many of the normal festivities and activities upper schoolers relish in.

“During quarantine, we couldn’t even be in the building together, much less go to athletic events together. There was basically no school spirit,” recalled Nina Breen ’23 Though last spring saw a slow resuscitation of community, this year, the AAC really put the panels on to jolt the Husky spirit back to life.

Homecoming 2022 was a highlight for them. The celebration started off with a bang of a pep rally that offered an opportunity for this behind-the-scenes crew to come center stage as the emcees and organizers of the event.

Wil Thomas ’23 talked about his experience revving up the crowd of 4th through 12th graders as one he’ll never forget. “I’m not gonna lie, standing in the middle of the gym, it was tough.” (Editor’s note for older people: tough means cool.) “Everywhere I turned, people were getting up and yelling with me. It felt like we were finally all in unison again. We’re all here together every day, spending all these hours with one another; we need to feel that unity.”

The whole event was a triumph of community, school spirit and palpable joy. The AAC members were invited to reflect on the planning process and could immediately identify where they made mistakes. Garrett Seegers ’23 pointed out, “We should’ve done a walk-through.”

Realizing they were 30 minutes ahead of their run of show, they put their improvisational skills to the test and came up with the dance-off and cup game to fill the time — two of the activities the students loved the most!

“This is the most professional thing we do,” Wil said. “Working together with each other to brainstorm ideas and work out logistics, emailing administration to verify what we can and can’t do. We take it very seriously.”

Teaching student leaders to set up a meeting, hold a conversation, look at issues from multiple perspectives, and craft an inclusive program is something we value even above the school spirit that they create. We know that in the long run, these students will advocate for positive change wherever they go, and we want them prepared to do so when the time comes.

Other people in the community have been taking notice of their hard work and professionalism as well.

Like many of our student leadership groups, we push the AAC onto their growth edges when it comes to advocacy and leadership. Teaching student leaders to set up a meeting, hold a conversation, look at issues from multiple perspectives and craft an inclusive program is something we value even above the school spirit that they create. We know that in the long run, these students will advocate for positive change wherever they go, and we want them prepared to do so when the time comes.

–Don Paige, Director of the Upper School

Director of Athletics Dewayne Robinson serves as their advisor and is proud of the lessons the kids are learning. “They’re building leadership and communication skills that they’ll lean on for the rest of their lives.”

What’s next for the AAC? You tell them! They’re hoping to get ideas from their fellow classmates. If you have any ideas for raising school spirit, email them at aac@flinthill.org.