This past Spirit Week felt like a return to normalcy because the pandemic affected the way the Isidore Newman community celebrated this Upper School Homecoming Tradition. Grades competed against each other for the glory of the Spirit Stick. Using their creativity and passion for competition, grades dressed up each day in accordance with the theme. Themes varied from a comfy PJ day to a festive holiday theme day to the patriotic school colors of Green and White. But this Spirit Week ignited a feud with a long-awaited triumph for the Class of 2023!

Spirit Week of 2019 left a dark stain on the history of Spirit Week hallways. The Class of 2023 as freshmen decorated the notorious Clue Hall for Board Game Day; many people declared this one of the worst hallways of Spirit Week. Thus, there was no remote chance at a victory. The following year as sophomores, the Class of 2023 displayed a fighting chance as their hall was New York for the City theme, but the judges deemed that their city that never sleeps was not awake enough, but they persevered! 2021’s spirit week hallway theme was Holidays. The seniors foolishly passed up the choice of having a Halloween hallway at peak spooky season, but Junior PEP reps Hillery Wynn and Weezy Biever seized the opportunity they had. The plan was intricate and entailed a working haunted house in the middle of the Foyer that allowed guests to immerse themselves in the spookiness of the holiday of Halloween. But the battle wasn’t over yet. Friday at the PEP rally the Juniors turned the tide in the Pep rally games with Will Zurik defeating Grace Lynch in musical chairs and the Junior dress relay team completely obliterating the other grades. After the games, it was time for the results. With tensions running high, the Class of 2023 prevailed and won the spirit stick after two years of defeat. But little did the Class of 2023 know, a rivalry was just beginning. 

As the crowd settled to watch the game versus Coehn, the Spirit Stick was held by the juniors who were watching the game in the crowd. The jubilant juniors posed for photos with the Spirit Stick and celebrated their victory. Unfortunately, some bitter seniors still believed they were victorious and stole the stick from the juniors. With the refusal of returning the stick to the evident victors, seniors took photos of themselves biting Spirit Stick and waving it about. Even the Greenie Swamp Instagram account declared the seniors as the “real winners.” *insert eye roll* Unfortunately, this bitter defeat brought the green-eyed monster of jealousy in the Class of 2022. One senior attempted to walk out with the Spirit Stick by stuffing down his pants, thus taking the rivalry too far since a faculty member had to threaten them with theft of property. 

But the Class of 2022’s jealousy didn’t put a damper on the Class of 2023’s spirit. The Class of 2023 embodied the celebration of Spirit Week by giving it their all and persevering against the odds. 

Congratulations to the Class of 2023 and Junior PEP reps Weezy Biever and Hillery Wynn for their Spirit Week Victory.