:: flinging PomPons into the air, leaping wildly, and taunting ShibbOleth::
WE GOT MORE…
WE GOT MORE!!!
:: moons Hamlet ::
Started in high school in a suburb of Atlanta, went to a decent sized, tradition filled high school. In Georgia high school football was everything, we lusted after the cheerleaders and went out for football. Everyone (it seemed), even the stoners, went to the football games. Lots of yelling, many school buses to the games, the whole deal. That was eighth and ninth grade, about 1975-76.
Then my family moved to Florida. The school we ended up at was built in 1976 to handle over flow from several older schools. The football team, like any expansion team, sucked. The other schools found rules to keep the good atheletes from transferring to the new school. Linemen began studying string instruments to stay at their school, since it wasn’t offered at ours yet. People went to the football games, it’s still the South after all, but mainly out of a morbid curiosity over how badly we’d be beaten that week. I was more tall than big, and although I was a half ways decent football player I was more interested in soccer and swimming so I forgot about football. Even though the football team was pretty bad there was still a bit of a cult of personality centered on the team.
But another big difference from the previous school was that there were no established cliques. Everybody could make friends with whoever they liked, since it was a fresh start. Jocks hung out with freaks, geeks mixed in with jocks. Not 100%, but a helluvalot more than at the previous school. Not so much labelling going on, and the labels were harder to apply. Heck, the best math student in my class (after me 
) was the otherwise stereotypical blonde, large busted cheerleader. Very nice girl, as well. We were also one of the first local high schools to mainstream students. My class valedictorian was a blind woman who got perfect grades. I think we all kind of admired her but no one really knew how to interact with her. I still regret not making an effort to get to know her.
Because of this intermingling there was a school spirit a little more based in friendship, not so much pride of winning, particularly since winning was few and far between. My circle of friends started a cheering section at the football games that was crazy and very fun. We would go to the football games and cheer for one of our group who was the center on the team. Centers don’t normally have their own, much less the most vocal, cheering section. The other schools must have thought that we were crazy. We also invented our own bizarre songs and cheers, which mainly had nothing to do with the team, but were fun to sing.
By my senior year the team actually started to get half ways decent, winning more games than they lost and barely missed making the playoffs. So they grew with us. Sadly, though, the forming of cliques had started up a bit. I am sure its either gone that way or the total apathy route by now, I’m not sure which.
We had like on pep rally in my entire 4-year stay. It consisted of eating cookies by a bonfire (in November, I think) while the various captains of teams (or designated representatives) went on about how good their teams were.
It got kinda tired when it was middler (freshman) soccer or jv field hockey, because if you’re on JV you’re not good enough to be varsity, and there weren’t many subs on varsity;)
Football went 8-0, though, so that was fun.
:: pointing at ShibbOleth’s naked butt::
**U - G - L - Y
YOU AIN’T GOT NO ALIBI
YOU UGLY; UH HUH, YOU UGLY**
Our school had heaps of passion. We used to dress up in our house colours for school athletics, students would go and cheer the rowing team in inter-school competitions, etc. There was similar - if not more - enthusiasm for drama and music. I’m fairly sure all the other schools hated us though. 
Valley Forge Military Academy 1993
School spirit my ass…it’s hard to have school spirit for a highschool that gets you up at 5:00 am and makes you run three miles…in combat boots.
…Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar
All for Puyallup stand up and holler!
Somebody fucking shoot me.
Class of 1999. Very few people at my high school had school spirit including the athletes. We sucked at sports big time. And then when we did win it was usually by accident.
We tried. But all of our skits for the pep rally were considered “inappropriate” by our gray haired faculty, we couldn’t do any competitions or anything active because it was a “security risk,” couldn’t rush the field after winning, couldn’t go onto the court after the games, and no talking even APPROPRIATE smack to the officials or other players.
All of that with the fact that are cross-town rival sucked at EVERYTHING! (Except girls basketball where they were on a 25 game winning streak are killed EVERYONE).
And the worst part was having to take the abuse from other schools with no change of returning it. I’m glad to do so if I can dish a little than my own, but it is useless. I’ve seen some kids almost start BRAWLS over their team, we couldn’t say damn. Whatever. And they were so surprised nobody came to the games they even started taking surveys on why kids don’t come. Did that change anything? Make a guess.
holding up a picture of Hamlet
**M-A-M-A
We know how you got that way!
Yo’ mama, uh huh! Yo’ MAMA!
D-A-DD-Y
You don’t even know that guy!
Yo’ daddy, uh huh! Yo’ daddy!** 
Class of 1988, Bishop Guertin High. There was some school spirit - each class got one hallway in the school to decorate in anticipation of our homecoming game with our crosstown (secular) rival. I don’t remember if we won any of the four years I was there. Not much more than that, altho’ there was some support when the Granite State Challenge team (academic bowl-type TV program) started kicking serious butt their first time playing.
At my school the pep rallies bring down the morale of the school, they’re pathetic (who’s gonna win? silence um… WHO’s gonna win?!? principal goes to microphone “we are”, school gives up)
GIVE ME A H
H
GIVE ME A A
A
GIVE ME A M
M
GIVE ME A L -E- T
L - E - T
WHAT’S THAT SPELL?
HAMLET
LOUDER!
HAMLET!
HAMLET, YAY!!!
:: Doing splits and backflips, throwing remaining PomPons at Olentzero::
Class of '88. We had quite a bit of school spirit. Of course, as small as my school was, (200 students total) half the school played some sport. The only team I was on however, was the academic team.
They also had us trapped. The only non-school related activity where I grew up was hunting.
We had a lot of younger teachers who really got into it too. They let us get away with a lot, as long as it didn’t get too out of hand.
Class of '88, small town in the middle of nowheresville, Penna. No school spirit whatsoever, however, our cheerleading squad would be sleeping with ShibbOleth, Olentzero, and Hamlet’s boyfriends.
Didn’t have one then, don’t have one now.
[Jay]I like WOMEN!!![/Jay]
Well, the school I was at my 9th grade year had lots of school spirit - but then it was a small school, and everyone knew everyone else, and the two biggest groups on campus werethe jocks and the band - and the band kids were actually the more popular of the two groups (it helps that we had a VERY good band - and yes, I was in it )
I moved to a new school for the remainder of my high school days - over 2000 students in a small town. Lots of racial tension (the school was about 45% black, 45% white and 10% Native American), not much school spirit. And even though I have lots of friends still from that school, and it was where I really developed my love for theatre (the only ‘color blind’ clique in the school), I still consider my first high school my ‘apiritual’ home.
We had exactly one pep rally the entire time I was in high school. Two-thirds of the students failed to return to class afterwards, so they discontinued them Our football team hadn’t won a game in over 20 years, which might have had something to do with it…
My high school was only marginal in most sports, but the girls’ basketball program was and is a legend in California (Buena High in Ventura). The coach has turned down many college offers stemming from his 2 state championships, other final four appearances, and 11 straight division titles. Man, that guy’s amazing. Families were moving just to get in our attendance area. So when it came to that sport, there was a lot of spirit. I think the girls outdrew the boys.
At college, the basketball team went to the national NAIA tournament, and on the way there was a lot of spirit. My roommate brought packs of tortillas, and we threw them around the bleachers. We were so rowdy that we were threatened with penalty free throws for the other team.
My high school (class of 2003) has quite a decent amount of spirit. We have theme days during homecoming week, many people at dances, and pride for our better teams (girls basketball, especially).
But the pep rallies suck. Too many people in a too-small room, with too much noise and too little order. Yuck.
Gooooooooooooooooooo Black Knights!
Laval Catholic High School, 1977.
School spirit was something the chromés did. They were the disco crowd. (Chromés=french for chromed as in disco ball)
Us rockers(stoners) were too busy with other stuff to be into that shi… uh stuff.
Now I kinda wonder if I was in the right group. Oh well, it was fun.
d