Football season is over, the hallway decorations from Homecoming Week have all been taken down and there are no more flying monkey plushies hanging from the ceiling. As the excitement from the past month has dwindled down, students at BVN reveal what school spirit really means to them.

“I think that school spirit is really just being really involved in the student body,” senior cheerleader Abby Glenn said. “And I think the best way to do that is to join different clubs and make lots of different friends.” 

Glenn is involved in many clubs and activities, including Yearbook, running the school store (The Stampede), National Honor Society, Spirit Club, being the senior class Vice President and varsity cheerleading. 

Unlike Glenn, sophomore Will Ledgerwood is not on the cheer team, but he enjoys going to the football games, and usually stands and cheers from the student section. 

“My voice is usually gone the next morning from yelling so much, but I love doing the cheers,” Ledgerwood said. 

School spirit is a vital part of the high school experience, according to Ledgerwood.

“It’s [school spirit] a fun way to interact with your friends and meet new people,” Ledgerwood said. “I think just being involved in the school community is a big part of it… you sometimes feel so much spirit going through the school, especially on Fridays when we have football games.” 

For incoming freshmen at BVN, many students get involved in school activities during their transition to high school, and that includes learning about school traditions. Freshman Lilly Copeland believes that traditions make the student body more unified. 

“I think it’s [school spirit] really important because it just makes high school more fun, it brings students together and makes the school more unified,” Copeland said. ” [It’s] more of a community thing, and more than just a learning experience.”

Two juniors, who wished to remain anonymous, said that school spirit only focuses on a few select activities and sports at North.

“School spirit here is mainly about football, volleyball, cheer and sometimes soccer,” Anonymous said. “Some of the smaller sports don’t get as much attention, even if they made it to State. I run cross country and we went to State last year, and we got a tiny thing at the bottom of the online school flyer.” 

The students said that they felt the fine arts and liberal arts departments do not get as much attention as the sports teams.

“I think school spirit can be more than just about sports though, a lot of my friends are in orchestra or theatre, and we think we should get more support for our concerts and plays and things,” Anonymous said.