Loyola’s annual Spirit Week, hosted from Monday, Oct. 30 to Friday, Nov. 3, was a week-long event that focused on enhancing school enthusiasm through games, themed clothing days and special meals.
Spirit Week allowed students and faculty to express their Cub pride and overall school spirit with special events such as Dodgers attire day, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts sold every morning, sports jerseys day, catering, contests and competitions between teachers and students. Spirit Packs were available for purchase before the week which allowed students to have every meal provided at a cheaper cost including ice cream, doughnuts, tacos and a Carl’s Jr. meal.
Director of Student Activities Chris Walter said, “Spirit Week creates a fun energy throughout the week. Some of the students get to compete against the faculty and it brings the faculty and students closer together. It’s a good time to have fun, and I think it relieves some stress that comes from the normal day-to-day activities.”
On the first day of Spirit Week, students were allowed to wear any Dodgers-related clothing. Kermit’s Ice Cream also served ice cream during lunch. Monday’s activities came to an end with a dodgeball match between student council and certain faculty. Student council tied faculty in Pernecky Gym, as both teams won three games each.
During the second day of Spirit Week, Halloween, many students dressed in their desired costumes and some participated in a costume contest held at the loading dock during lunch. The Halloween costume costume winner was senior Reid Whitney, who dressed up as mathematics instructor Kelly Nicholson.
Senior Chris Queano said, “I think the day of Halloween was the best Spirit Week day because I got to see a lot of my friends and other students dress up in some clever costumes.”
Junior Michael Farland said, “I really liked Halloween. The costume contest and dressing up was tons of fun. Although, I will say, I really enjoyed sports jersey day this year because I finally got to bust out my one of my favorite old jerseys and it was great.”
On the next day of Spirit Week, the Loyola community attended a school-wide Liturgy to celebrate All Saints’ Day. After the Mass during lunch, students could purchase a special $6 taco plate catered by Zlicious Eatz, which included three tacos, a churro and a drink.
The following day, students and faculty wore their favorite sports jerseys. Cubs were also given a chance to dunk faculty members in the dunk tank during lunch. Dean of Men Dan Annarelli, Spanish teacher Jose Sustaita and Head Athletic Trainer Tim Moscicki volunteered. The Famous Star or Western Bacon Cheeseburger, along with fries and a drink, from Carl’s Jr. were also available for students to purchase during lunch.
Freshman Griffin Engstrom said, “I think that my favorite day would have to be Thursday when they had Carl’s Jr. and the dunk tank because even though I wasn’t able to get a burger from Carl’s Jr., I thought it was really fun watching the teachers getting dunked by the students.”
Sophomore Steven Arellano said, “My favorite day of Spirit Week was Thursday when students wore their favorite jerseys because I got to see which sports teams people liked and I thought that was cool.”
On Friday, the final day of Spirit Week, students and faculty wore Hawaiian t-shirts. Students could also wear normal Friday attire with the addition of blue jeans.
Student Body President Connor Ladwig said, “It is important, especially as winter sports are coming to a close, for students to have that school-spirit mentality. I also think it’s good for the students, just because Loyola can be strenuous in terms of work, to have something that deviates from the normal day-to-day stressors of school.”
With the addition of new student leaders and representatives, student council hopes to make a Spirit Week in the spring during second semester possible.
Ladwig said, “Even though it does cost a good amount of money from our budget, my goal is to have another Spirit Week around spring just so that we can have another week where guys can relax a little and have some fun during school.”