New Spirit Commission plans for exciting year

Having spent the month of August planning the year’s activities, the 2014-15 Spirit and Athletics Commission is ready to boost school pride at rallies and school sporting events.

The commission includes head commissioners seniors Analisa Ruff and Samir Ramakrishnan; committee members seniors Jonathan Huie, Jennifer Kim, Christina Chin, Adrienne Kim, Anshika Maheshwari, Guita Pardis and Madison Gress; and juniors Allison Lin, Nicole Prowse, Kanaai Shah and Anne Rollinson.

The commission, which had previously been called the “Spirit and Publicity” commission, has been renamed the  “Spirit and Athletics” commission so that members can focus their efforts primarily on boosting support and pride for the athletic teams. Rallies, music performances and spirit days will continued, but more of the budget and time are being directed at creating events and excitement for game days.

“There was a point in time, class of 2012 to be exact, when spirit was amazing at this school,” Ruff said. “Also, when my mom and her siblings went to [Saratoga] in the ‘70s, spirit was awesome too.”

The commission  organized an opening ceremony for the new sports plaza before the football game on Sept. 5 against Hillsdale High School. The commission also held its first homemade ice cream sandwich fundraiser on Aug. 20 to raise money for the purchases made over the summer.

So far, the commission has ordered over 700 “Get Loud” T-shirts to distribute to the students free of charge, as well as various types of noisemakers and beaded necklaces for football games.

“Our first goal towards raising spirit is to get as many people to go to sporting events as possible, and we hope to accomplish this by keeping students informed in exciting ways,” Ruff said.

This year, the commission’s main goal is to create a “red zone” area at every single sport team’s home games. Since many sports, such as tennis and cross country, have not gotten a lot of support in the past years, the commission aims to include every sport on their agenda.

“I want students to be able to brag about how awesome their school is and how great their sports events are,” Ruff said.

The commission also looks forward to helping the rally commission in its rally tailgates and promotion. The commission has prepared face paint, temporary tattoos and other accessories, free of charge, for the rally days.

On Sept. 5, the commission stood in the quad with four separate tables for each grade and any student interested got his or her face painted with class colors. Not only did this boost the level of participation from students, but also created an excited and hyped-up atmosphere.

“It’s going to be amazingly fun this year with a fantastic group of commissioners,” Ruff said. “We are going to boost the spirit from the beginning of the school year and will carry it out through the rest of the year.”