Senior Gary Williams seems to be carrying the spirit of Englewood High School deep inside. He lets it out by getting everyone together and urging them to get excited and participate in school events. You can often see him front and center at nearly every school event. Every assembly, every game, every day, Williams is a force for positivity at EHS. He makes an effort to be everywhere, “I go to every event that I can.” He says school spirit is more than just showing up, “It’s deeper than that. It’s like leaving a legacy and starting another level of hype-ness and connectedness. Coming to games, coming to events. Starting new traditions.”

Principal Ryan West has made school spirit a priority this year. Why is it important? “Wow, that’s a good question. I was a member of our student government, which we called the Student Council. So we were kind of in charge of organizing assemblies, but I also got involved as a member of a football team and a basketball team and so we were always coming in like in our uniforms and things like that.”

Mr. West feels like everybody needs to feel like they belong in Englewood, “My goal is that whenever any kid walks through the front doors here they feel like they’re walking into a second home. And everybody should feel comfortable here and I want everybody to be proud of their school. And I think that’s been hard to do, especially over the last couple of years with the pandemic because we’ve been so isolated from each other. But I think school spirit is a way of bringing people together in a nonverbal way. Just everybody wearing the same blue shirts or white shirts that we handed out the first couple of days of school or something just kind of brings everybody together. Even though you might not be talking to each other in the same class or whatever, just kind of united through this idea of school spirit.”

He would like to see more people participate in these school events, “I think so far this year, the participation has been awesome, especially compared to the last few years when we haven’t able to do as much so the first couple days of school with the kickoff assembly, and then ice cream assembly at the end of the day on Friday and just you know, rotating around through all the stations. I just think our attendance was over 95% Those first couple of days. Just feels like everybody’s excited to be back at school this year.”

Junior Tracy Jennings is also full of Pirate Pride, “I think it’s just about bringing the energy and having. If you’re not having fun, others aren’t having fun. In order for everyone else to feel it, you got to put it out there.” Jennings believes now is the time to rebuild the EHS community, “I don’t think no one is feeling it and getting into it. We are just getting out of covid and scared and trying to get out in the world. We are overwhelmed and it is no fun.” She is willing to show others how to bring joy into the world, “I think it’s my destiny to be positive and happy and get everyone else positive and happy. It’s just something I’m just born into.”

Events that you could take part in include: Homecoming week October 3-8, 2022. There is also a Winter Dance. The date of that has yet to be announced.