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SPIRIT 2 0 WEEK15
Volume XII | Issue 6 | Spirit Week 2015 | Westminster Christian Academy
What’s Inside
Page 7
First Place...4 Dress Up...5 Blue Man...6-7
Spirit Night
Boys Poms...8-9 Page 8
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Sports Physicals
Sports Injuries
Blue Man Stomp, Boys Poms, and Lip Sync performed their first and second winning routines. The night closed with the announcement of the winner of Spirit Week. The Seniors barely grasped the victory with only a 49 point lead over the Juniors. The Seniors finished first in Boys Poms, Lip Sync, Art Board, and Film Project to make the week one to remember.
Wildcat Roar Staff
Nutrition
Back & Neck Pain
On Friday night, Westminster students, parents and alumni gathered to cheer on the basketball team at Spirit Night. In addition to watching the basketball team beat rival John Burroughs, fans witnessed a high-spirited routine from Varsity Cheer Team and an outstanding hip-hop performance from Varsity Dance Team. To finish off the night, students who particpated in
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Caroline Agan Jack Andrews Michael Alldredge Mary Grace Barber Markus Cicka Tessa Copeland Ryan Davis Katherine Galvin Abi Hackman Chase Lottmann Sarah Ragsdale Tierra Reese Mike Richardson Ben Sems Amon Kehr Carl Simakoff
Print Editors: Audrey O’Neill and Mary Heyl
Newspaper
Design Editors: Maggi Eachus and Ashley Klein
Editor-in-Chief:
Broadcast Editor: John Pottebaum
Online Editor: Katherine Yenzer
Publications Executive Editor:
Sports Editor: Jake Schroeder
Features Editor: Lauren Ramos
Advisor:
Opinions Editor: Juhyae Kim
News Editor: Lauren Ramos Entertainment Editor: Becca Eis Business Manager: Andrew Montgomery
Megan Galvin Chrissy Talent Scott Vonder Bruegge
1st Place SENIORS
A Close Call By Abi Hackman Congratulatios to the class of 2015! The seniors pulled through to win spirit week with what many would call a miraculous comeback, in light of years past. Their last spirit week at Westminster was characterized by a redeemed passion, effort and teamwork as the whole class invested time and energy into the games and performances. With wins in Art Board, Lip Sync, Boys Poms, and Film Project, each student contributed to bring in the final score, beating the juniors by just 49 points.
2nd
JUNIORS
4th
5th
FRESHMEN
3rd
8TH GRADE
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SOPHOMORES
6th 7TH GRADE
Dress Up
Put away the Land’s End By Jake Schroeder
For every other week of the school year (all 37 of them to be exact), Westminster students are seen wearing the typical navy blue and khaki attire known as the school uniform. But for one week of the year, students are given the freedom to wear whatever they want, as long as they dress up. Along with the perennial favorites that are class color, blue and white, and America day, this year brought two new styles of dress to the halls of WCA: occupation day and Disney day. Occupation day brought on an abundance of new and creative costumes. Throughout the school, doctors, lawyers, and the occasional teacher impersonation brought a comical air to the opening day of spirit week. “I dressed up as a golfer. It was fun because it was so different. I got to wear a collared shirt with my costume, but I still felt like I was dressing down.” said Jack Linton, junior. On Thursday, the Westminster community celebrated Disney Day. Childhood characters of all kinds made the thursday of Spirit Week enjoyable and light hearted. “Disney day was fun because it was entertaining to see people in so many elaborate and outrageous costumes.” said Joe Schroeder, eighth grade.
The Sound of Talent By: Sarah Ragsdale
Behind the drum-beatingrhythm-making-flute-playing flurry of Blue Man Stomp performances stands an abundance of unseen talent and hard work. “I didn’t look at any ‘how to’ videos online, so everything you saw was imagined and then created by myself and the rest of the team,” said sophomore Joshua Theus. “Graham Stanfill and Dongbin Lee were the force behind our instruments,” said senior Elizabeth Schmidt. Crafting a show from scratch is no easy process. “Considering we didn’t even have a blue man stomp last year, we had to start from the ground and work our way up,” said Theus. “In the time that boys poms and lip sync have to learn their choreography, we have to create, memorize, perfect, and perform out routine,” said junior Haley Weinberg. However, the countless hours of practice were not in vain. “After each day, I could see it coming together more and more, and it was so encouraging. The icing on the cake was when we got third place this year. That proved to me that we could perform on a higher caliber next year and maybe even surpass the current juniors!” said Theus. “It’s really awesome to see how people can use their gifts to make something happen that I couldn’t,” said junior ZachHughes. “My favorite part was getting to know some people that I had been going to school with for six years but never had the chance to speak to,” said Schmidt. The awe-inspiring performances find their root in creative, hard-working, and gifted students--most of whom have a dash of class pride, too.
BLUE MAN STOMP 1ST PLACE
2ND PLACE
3RD PLACE
4TH PLACE 5TH PLACE 6TH PLACE
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Boys Poms 6th
1st SENIORS
FRESHMEN
5th
7TH GRADE
4th
SOPHOMORES
3rd
8TH GRADE
A Photo Finish By: Lauren Ramos
Boys’ Poms is one of the most popular events of the Spirit Week Competition. This year the competition was exceedingly high between the Junior and Senior class. Both class’s routines were carthemed. Many waited anxiously to see which routine would make it to the finish line first. The junior class raced their way to the checkered flag with their NASCAR themed performance which featured a Barbie Jeep and the talents of the Class of 2016. “I am really proud of our routine. All that matters is that the guys had a good time and enjoyed performing in front of the school community,” said Morgan Barr, junior boys’ poms leader.
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Ultimately, the seniors won the race this year with their carwash themed spectacle which had a surprise appearance from the assistant head of school, Dr. Jim Sefrit. “The amount of practice that the guys put in was seen through their performance. They left themselves out on the floor and all of their hard work paid off,” said Rachel Ritter, senior boys’ poms leader. The race was extremely close and ultimately came down to experience which is where the seniors shined. Next year, another exciting photo finish for the trophy should be expected with the increasing competition each year.
2nd JUNIORS
Lip Sync
3rd JUNIORS
Hosts with the Most By Becca Eis
1st
4th SOPHOMORES
SENIORS
5TH FRESHMEN 2nd EIGHTH GRADE Nerds, Cats & Everything in Between As often happens, the seniors placed first with a catchy and authentic Egyptian themed dance inspired by the movie “Prince of Egypt,” but in an unforeseen turn of events, 8th grade took second with a “Rio” themed dance, complete with . The juniors took third with a dance choreographed to “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” with retro school uniforms to match, sophomores landed in 4th with an adorable cat inspired dance to “Everybody Wants to be a Cat,” with roots in swing-dancing, freshmen scored 5th place with a
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By Cate Hoogstraten
Tangled inspired dance, and the 7th grade placed 6th with a sixties sock-hop dance with coordinating poodle skirts. However, contrary to what some may believe, the title of “1st Place” is not what most lip sync leaders look forward to. “The best part of leading lip sync is how cool it is to see improvement in the girls. One day it can be a huge mess, and the very next day, it’s like, “Wow.” said Holly Gilmore, sophomore, who was one of the two leaders to choreograph her grade’s dance.
6TH 7TH GRADE
In the six Westminster spirit weeks the seniors have been a part of, they had not yet experienced seeing their peers host the afternoon assemblies. Though hesitant at first, Drew Straub and Harrison Farmer, seniors, took on this responsibility with pride. Familiar faces to most in the Westminster community, the senior boys are well-known for their many performances in Westminster plays and musicals, including leads in the latest musical, Seussical. “Getting to hype people up for the most exciting week of the year is awesome,” said Straub. While being the MCs of Spirit Week would be exciting, it would also present a few challenges. “I’ve been in improv for about three years now, but I still have trouble finding the right words to say in front of such a big crowd. It is also hard not to cheer super hard for my class, because I have to be as unbiased as possible,” said Farmer. Even though the two seniors are quite different from last year’s hosts, Chris Knerr, upper school history teacher, and Warren Smith, upper school science teacher, Straub and Farmer fit this role well despite their inexperience.
Works of Art By: Mary Grace Barber The grades’ art board teams had been working tirelessly for two and a half weeks to perfect their Disney-themed art board. A leader from each grade was asked about the aspects of working on the boards. “We came up with a bunch of different ideas for Up, then chose on one design that best clicked,” said Emma Gustafson, 8th grade. “My favorite part is being creative and designing my own portrayal of Beauty and the Beast,” said Bethany Holden, freshmen. “The most stressful thing about art board is getting everything done,” said Gabby James, sophomore. Her class’ board theme was Alice in Wonderland. “I think it’s sad that art board doesn’t get enough recognition. We all give one hundred percent and earn half the amount of points as the other competitions,” said Isabel Guariglia, junior. The junior’s theme was Cinderella. The seniors won first place in art board with a Little Mermaid theme designed by Ashton Kratky. “This being my final year on art board, I felt proud of how successful it was. Going from last place the previous year to first place this year was a great feeling,” said Kratky.
Art Board
Film Project
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GAMES
Let The Games Begin By Caroline Agan In case you already forgot, the week began with two days of inter-class competition which were largely dominated by the upperclassmen, to no one’s surprise. Games like sumo wrestling went to the seniors despite strong competition; Justin Creighton, senior, went undefeated in the show of raw strength, complemented by a strapped on medicine ball. In addition, both the males and females of the class of 2015 took down their adversaries in tug-of-war. The juniors came through in the slightly less straightforward Caterpillar Race and the Chariot Race, in addition to dominating Balloon Stomp during the first day of games. “The games are neat, because you get to see all the grades competing against each other without all the craziness and hype of Lip Sync or Blue Man Stomp,” said Patrick Agan, sophomore. In addition to the old classics like The Floor is Lava or Human Bowling, new games were added to the traditional selection, such as Human Alphabet, in which students lay down to form letters and form words quicker than the other grades.
News/Features scorecard
Breakout performance
HOT
Justin Creighton
/ SENIOR
Levi Wright
While the judges may have scored differently, the Eight Grade lip sync flew away from the rest of the competion.
/ FRESHMAN
THEY SAID IT
Connor Haffenrichter
“I was like, ‘What,’” Madison Tucker
8th Grade Lip Sync
The first-
“My favorite part was be- timers and ing creative and crazy with the seasoned the outfits, and my favorite veterans event was boys poms. I reflect on the mean, I knew it was going Spirit Week to be crazy, but not THAT Journey. crazy.”
“I want it to not be so competitive, uniting the classes instead of dividing them, but keeping the joy of victory. Never going to be anything like (Spirit Week) again, so I might as well enjoy it and not stress out about it. Spirit Week is supposed to be fun,”
Luke Matheny While he may have cuaght everyone’s attention with his dazzling attire, during the chariot race, that was not what everyone was looking at.
Hannah Geisz
11th Grade Ducks
“I almost cried.”
Hannah Stevenson It is the class of 2020’s first experience with Spirit Week. Some may have had older siblings tell Check out them about the frenzy of the more stories weeks leading up to and the by using the week of, yet others have never online even heard of this unique time newspaper only a few months before. thewildcatroar.com
Despite falling 49 points short, Connor revolutionized the Spirit week tradtion-literally carying the entire 11th grade on his shoulders. He’s the real MVP.
Lowest on the list remains the 11th grade Ducks in the Tub who claimed to have not realized that there was actually a time limit on the game. They finished fourth.
Elizabeth Schmidt It is the senior class of 2015’s last year of Spirit Week. Some have been here for just a year, while others have attended Westminster for six whole years.
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