The Spirit Committee, created this year by The Associated Student Body (ASB) this school year, is  designed to increase school spirit. With two pep rallies left in the school year, the Spring Sports Pep Rally and Color Wars Pep Rally, teachers and students noticed a shift in energy, engagement and organization.

“Coming from last year, we wanted to see what we could do to get students more involved and more wanting to be involved in the school and be active,” Spirit Commissioner Zander Ovies (12) said.

Ovies is one of 12 students that make up the Spirit Committee, which Skylar Beets (11) leads. 

“We started a committee called the Spirit Committee [this year], and in that committee, we talk about pep rallies, football games, basketball games [and] teams,” Ovies said. “We’re mostly concerned about getting kids involved.”

This year, the assembly schedule puts pep rallies before fifth period, which encourages attendance because “a lot of people would leave before the pep rally, so now they have to stay for fifth,” according to Bellina Tricarico (11), one of the three Pep Rally Commissioners.

“I think [this year] we focus a lot more on how we [to] get the crowd involved, what games would be most entertaining for the crowd to watch and what themes could be most accessible for [students] to dress up as as well,” Tricarico said. 

Tricarico found that the crowd likes games that are larger or require more participation, like dodgeball and bubble soccer. 

English 10 Honors teacher Kristen Cullen saw a recent improvement in school spirit, especially evident in pep rallies.

“I feel like, just from my own empirical experience, the pre-COVID pep rallies reflected a little bit more of what I experienced in high school, which was a lot of school spirit and an excitement to go into the rallies and a real pride in how classes performed, essentially,” Cullen said. “Then, when COVID hit, we had probably like a year and a half to two years total, essentially, where that graduating class was at home. And when we all came back, it was like almost starting fresh.”

According to Cullen, “it took a while to get back” after the pandemic. She noticed that “everyone was just kind of a little quieter” and “less [willing] to put themselves out there.” However, Cullen believes that, “in the last few years, [school spirit] has been building up again.”

“I definitely see a change in when we walk in [to pep rallies],” Cullen said. “I see that people kind of have more of a knowledge about what’s going on. [There’s more] excitement about being part of their class or being open to cheering [and] motivated to just put themselves out there a little bit more, like it used to be. There’s more of a knowledge of what it’s supposed to look like.”

Students see similar trends. Emily Kim (11) feels that the pep rallies this year seem “more prepared and [have] more engaging activities.”

“We’ve been able to spend more on decorations and game items, and then we’ve also added a poster wall, which we haven’t done before,” Tricarico said.

According to Tricarico, “more extravagant” pep rallies have helped students “feel more spirit to go to other events, too.”

“It’s important that everyone feels the energy of the school and that we all take pride in our school,” Tricarico said.

Ovies said the main goal is for “every kid [to] feel comfortable at this school.”

“Not even just at school, but in activities [outside school hours] like dances, basketball, football games, even plays and dance recitals and stuff like that,” Ovies said. “We want kids to feel part of the school, be at school and not feel uncomfortable dressing up or participating in pep rally games.”

New investments in school spirit this year include a DJ booth led by Brody Leonard (12), according to Ovies. 

“He does a great job, has a wonderful, beautiful set, loves being involved and [gets] the students involved,” Ovies said.

While the DJ booth is limited to football games, ASB purchased a T-shirt cannon to increase engagement during pep rallies.

“We wanted kids in the back, especially underclassmen, like freshman and sophomores, to feel involved, because I know seeing down from the top of the stands, it’s pretty difficult,” Ovies said. “So giving them T-shirts or even free gifts, gift cards, stuff like that, and even just better music as well, is definitely more important.”

In 2024, the Torrey Pines Cardinal Chaos ranked eighth for Southern California’s Student Section Report. Now, this school’s student section ranks fourth.

“We did a great job last year, led by Harper Kelly, but this year I thought we did a wonderful job getting kids more involved and [with the] nationally ranked student sections,” Ovies said. “We place up there with Carlsbad and Servite, all great schools that do a wonderful job getting their kids active and involved in the crowd.”

As an adult, Cullen reflects on the importance of a spirited school environment.

“[School spirit] connects us: it connects us to the school and it connects us to each other,” Cullen said. “[Also,] it’s a really fun part about being in your adolescence. It’s an opportunity to play, and when you kind of get into adulthood, playing opportunities become less and less. If you go to a college that has a really strong social aspect, whether it’s like a football team or an athletic team or whatever, it [can] bring you together, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes this is our last chance in our big transition of life to have a chance to be together and play and be loud and be rambunctious and fun.”