Of all the days in Spirit Week, Thursday has always been the most anticipated, hectic, and action packed, for at the end of the day, each class is tasked with presenting their respective pepper squads.
The pepper squad is a seven minute long presentation which classes begin developing months in advance. Usually, a class’s pepper squad will incorporate various musical, dance, and humor elements, all the while reflecting that year’s Spirit Week theme. This year’s theme was “Why so salty?”, and each class’s pepper squad routine illustrated the background of each grade’s respective villain mascots, with the eighth grade telling the story of Ursula from The Little Mermaid, the freshmen fleshing out the origins of Captain Hook from Peter Pan, and the Sophomores explaining exactly how Wreck it Ralph’s King Candy got “so salty.” Meanwhile, the juniors took on Syndrome from the Incredibles as the seniors integrated aspects from both the Lion King musical and spirit weeks past in their unique retelling of Scar’s origins.
One notable difference in this year’s proceedings was the absence of a seventh grade pepper squad. According to seventh grade English teacher Valerie Coryell, the seventh grade team decided to allow their grade to discover “what pepper squad is first, and then participate the following year.”
Keeping with Thursday’s pepper squad theme, students arrived at school dressed up as characters from the movies in which their grade level’s mascot originated. Costumes ranged from a colorfully face painted Rafiki from the Lion King to a preponderance of pirates, crew mates of Peter Pan’s Captain Hook.
Here are the current standings, as of Thursday, January 11:
Please note that these scores do not yet include points from the Pepper Squad, Mascots, Banner, the All School Cheer, the River of Life Fundraiser, and Friday’s Dress Up. These scores as well as the final Spirit Week 2018 standings will be announced Friday evening, January 12 at the Homecoming Game.
1st Place: Sophomores (64 Points)
2nd Place: Seniors (62 Points)
3rd Place: Juniors (56 Points)
4th Place: Eighth Grade (40 Points)
5th Place: Seventh Grade (31 Points)
6th Place: Freshmen (13 Points)
Featured Images from Pepper Squad Day:
Photographs by Brant Yamamoto (’18), Timothy Dixon (’20), and TJ Halemano-Reed (’20).
