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CAPTAINS Leading the victorious Blue Team, seniors Benny Wang and Rajan Joshi celebrate their hard-earned win.

ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS 10600 PRESTON RD. DALLAS, TX 75230

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May 21, 2021

SCHOOL SPIRIT Blue and Gold Day

Continuing the classic school-wide tradition, students celebrate Blue and Gold Day, led by Student Council president Blake Hudspeth.

Ekansh Tambe: What did it take to pull off Spirit Week in this historic year?

Blake Hudspeth: Spirit Week and Blue and Gold Day took a lot of planning before hand. The Student Council began to brainstorm the themes and games for the days of the week and plan the Blue and Gold team-dynamic at least two weeks out.

ET: What does it mean to you as a senior and Student Council President?

BH: The Senior Class all got really behind this week because we knew it would be one of the last times we would do something as a whole Upper School and because it was a chance to gain some normalcy in a year with so much change. Spirit Week had incredible energy from the entire community with everyone from middle schoolers to faculty wearing the themes and getting involved in the activities. The Senior Class is all hoping this new style of Spirit Week becomes a fun tradition that many future generations of Marksmen will be able to enjoy.

ET: How do you think y’all’s Spirit Week will define the Class of 2021’s legacy?

BH: Our goal as a Student Council was to have our year remembered not for the challenge of COVID-19 and instead defined by our progress in growing closer as a student body, and I think this Spirit Week was one of the many events that helped move us as an Upper School towards that goal.

STORY Ekansh Tambe PHOTOS Sal Hussain

ET: How does it feel to finish off your St. Mark’s career with an incredible Blue and Gold Day competition and Spirit Week traditions?

Benny Wang: It feels amazing but mostly because it was just such a fun week. Like Mr. Igoe said, the whole point of Spirit Week and Blue and Gold Day was to bring students of all grades in the Upper School together. We certainly achieved that with so much spirit and participation in events throughout the week and some lighthearted trash talk between both sides. I hope Spirit Week stays for decades to come at St. Mark’s because I had not seen this much spirit and fun since pre-COVID, and that means a lot.

ET: What was it like to maintain such a great tradition amongst all the craziness this year?

Aaryan Puri: After seeing so much of our school environment change because of COVID, it made me insanely happy and grateful to see the whole school get together and engage in activities that freshmen to seniors could participate in.

ET: What does being the Gold Team captain mean to you?

AP: Being a captain as a senior was a very special honor to me. I’ve always wanted to lead the whole school and having the opportunity to do that was like nothing else. Blake put on a great week for everyone and the blue and gold activities are something I’ll never forget and are essential to my career at St. Mark’s.

GAMES

Blue and Gold Day activities included football (top), tug-of-war (middle), and bubble soccer (left).

WINNERS After a great deal of hard work and planning genius, Blue Team took the win for this year’s Blue and Gold Day games.