Verde Loco Returns to Ridgeline

By Ashley Humbird

Splash contributor

The month of March is known as Verde Loco to the students and faculty at Ridgeline High School in Liberty Lake. School spirit is displayed all month long, cumulating in a final performance by the students at the end of the month.

We all have memories of our high school days and the different traditions that helped showcase our school spirit. For a new school, however, there are no set-in-stone traditions and it is up to the faculty and student body to create new ones.

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Ridgeline is a new school that had no spirit traditions in place and so a year ago in January of 2022 brainstorming began with the ASB student body and the ASB advisor Byran Conrad to create school spirit events. The Ridgeline High School’s mascot is the Falcons and their primary color is green. Armed with those two starting ideas, the decision was made to make March the month of school spirit and the name Verde Loco, meaning “crazy green” in Spanish. “It started with the idea that since March is already kind of a green month and that no other school really has a month dedicated to their school spirit, so we choose March as Ridgeline’s month,” Ryan Setter explains about the conception of Verde Loco.

School spirit promotes a sense of belonging and community, making students feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. When students feel connected to their school, they are more likely to be involved in school activities, including academic, social, and extracurricular activities. This can lead to increased student engagement and a more positive overall school experience. School spirit helps create a positive school culture, where students, faculty, and staff feel motivated and invested in the success of the school. School spirit can also create a sense of pride and excitement among students and faculty.

ASB President senior Owen

Rich has helped organize Verde Loco along with a team of seniors in the ASB program including, but not limited to, Ryan Setter, Lily Pesnell, Hayden Bennett, and Srikar Surapaneni. This year will be the first graduating class of Falcons from Ridgeline and the seniors are excited to help leave a lasting tradition for their lower classmen.

Verde Loco is a month-long class competition kicking off on March 1st. Each grade competes for the coveted trophy cup awarded at the end of the month by collecting points for various events. “All four grades have a theme and they figure out a theme to incorporate ‘green’ into it somehow. And then they use that theme the whole month. It starts with the hall they decorate, then the flag they decorate, and ends with the performance they have choreographed,” Senior Srikar Surapaneni explains the main events for the grades to participate in.

There are other smaller ways the classes compete against each other. On Friday, points are awarded for the class wearing the most Falcon wear, Wednesday during their lunches events are held where the classes can gain points, largest contribution to the food drive, the winner of the Powder Puff football game, and more.

Ridgeline has an average class size of 350-400 students and coordinating schedules to get together to plan the various events and participate in the final performance can be challenging. “There were about 50 kids from each class last year, and I think the juniors had the most. For the first year, it went very well,” Srikar reminisces on last years events.

The class with the highest score at the end of Verde Loco is declared the winner of Verde Loco and they win bragging rights for the remainder of the year, a six-foot-tall trophy, and getting to have their class-decorated flag displayed in the glass display case in the front of the school for a year. Last year, the Juniors won the event, and they are hoping to once again end the month of March with the title of Verde Loco champions. There are ways for the public and community to be involved with the month-long event. Shop Loco is a collaboration between local businesses and the Booster club with the funds going directly back to the programs at Ridgeline. Stickers with the slogan ‘Shop Loco’ are displayed at participating businesses in Liberty Lake.

The Powder Puff football game will be open to the public to come, watch, and cheer on the students. The two teams are made up of the student body with one team consisting of the Senior and Freshman girls and the other team the Junior and Sophomore girls. To attend the game on March 7th, bring cans of food to donate to the food drive.

The final event the students will compete in is the Battle of the Green, where they will perform the performance, they have collaborated on and worked on over the course of several weeks. This is an after school event that is also open to the community to come and enjoy. All the performances are recorded and posted onto their different media platforms including the Ridgeline YouTube channel.

Ridgeline counselor Kara Twining is proud of the event and the unity she sees from the students. “It’s a friendly competition. Every grade level cheered for every grade level. It was mass hysteria for whoever was out on the court preforming. That’s something that is truly unique to see.”

The ASB students helping to organize this year’s events at Ridgeline are all very excited to be apart of helping build on this tradition of school spirit for Ridgeline and Verde Loco events.

“Participate if you’re at Ridgeline,” says Ryan, “There is no better feeling than to feel like you belong to a community of your friends or class.”

Srikar thinks, “It’s a super cool experience and a high school experience that is like no other. I think its cool to be able to say that we put it on and that we’re also the first graduating class at this school and it’s cool this class got to be a part of all of that.”

“It’s a great opportunity for all of us to come together for a friendly competition,” Lily loves competitions and this is an event she’s been looking forward to for her senior year, “I’m super excited for the Powder Puff game because I haven’t been able to participate in one before.”

“My favorite part of Verde Loco as a whole is just the unity it brings to the school. Like last year we all started out fresh and we got the opportunity to build something and work together and support each other doing it.” Hayden explains.

Owen, the ASB President, has final words for fellow students, “Let’s fly high Falcons and reach for the stars! (air horn blasting).”