As the football season comes to a close, Steinert prepares for the annual football game against cross-town rival, Hamilton West. Starting the week leading up to Thanksgiving, students and faculty participate in Spirit Week. Spirit Week is a fun, creative, and competitive way to not only get ready for the game, but to also show school spirit and Steinert Pride. Running from Wednesday to the day before the big game, Spirit Week is a competition between the grades and the faculty to see which group has the most school spirit. Students are able to vote on which themes they want to see throughout our school. The SGA led by Mrs. Caruso takes time and effort to decorate the hallways with unique banners, balloons, and streamers. They also volunteer their time to tally up the percentage of students participating. The winner of Spirit Week is announced during the pep rally.

To kick off Spirit Week, Barbie Day was chosen as the theme on November 15th. Students and faculty showed up in their best Barbie-inspired outfits, and the halls were filled with different shades of pink. Some students even chose to dress like Barbie and Ken, with Barbie’s roller skating outfit from the new Barbie movie being a popular choice. The next day was Class Color Day, and each group was assigned a different color to wear. The freshman wore green, sophomores in red, juniors in blue, seniors in black, and the faculty sported purple. Class Color Day also coincides with Wacky Races, an after school event where different grade levels participate in fun competitions to see who will come out on top. During this competition, races and games such as Tug of War and a pie eating contest were completed. By the end of the night, the seniors were declared victorious. To close out the school week, Friday was Decade/Generation Day. Participants were encouraged to dress like a specific time period or generation different from their own. Many students opted to wear T-shirts from different bands, but some went all out, like Mr. Giglio’s disco/80s look.

The following week started with Pajama Day on Monday. Almost everybody participated; Who wouldn’t want to wear pajamas to school? Tuesday was Country Western/Country Club. Participants chose whether to dress up as a country club goer, or someone from the wild west. This meant that you could see someone dressed up in a polo with a sweater tied around them or have the complete opposite with a flannel and a cowboy hat. The last day of Spirit Week was Steinert Spirit Day. Students and Faculty were encouraged to wear green or anything Steinert. 

Wednesday was also our pep rally, an annual tradition to create excitement for the Thanksgiving football game. Mrs. Caruso puts in a lot of effort to create a fun and exciting environment for the entire Steinert community, creating different events, competitions, and performances all culminating in a send off to Spirit Week. Hosted by Mr. Sinkleris, the pep rally starts by announcing the fall sports, highlighting its seniors, with football rounding out the athletes. Head Coach Mr. Richards gave inspiring words of advice to the football team, and encouraged fellow Spartans to show their support for the team. 

The pep rally saw performances from Steinert’s cheerleading teams, the Step Team, and the Dance Team. The Varsity Cheer Team performed their award winning routine, and their stunts, flips, and tricks got the crowd roaring. The Step Team displayed their skills with an impressive set, and the Dance Team showed off their performance with an energetic Captain’s Dance showcasing the talent of the team. Another highlight of the pep rally was the volleyball game where the students played the staff. The Seven and The Pink Bandits, winners of the After Prom Volleyball Tournament, had to come from behind to win against the faculty, and the crowd went wild. At the very end of the pep rally, the winners of Spirit Week were announced: In last place, the freshman, juniors were fourth, the faculty were third, sophomores came in second, and in first place were the seniors. This year’s Spirit Week was a great success, and we hope that next year’s will be even better! Go Spartans!