Reviving school spirit: Navigating the silence and impact of COVID-19

One of the most important aspects of high school life is school spirit and culture — the majority of which is created by students and carried on in perpetuity by those who come after. From chanting songs to halftime performances to storming the field after a big win, school traditions are kept alive by crowds of passionate students. But when COVID-19 hit, student sections were faced with a unique challenge: how to keep these traditions alive. At what point does a tradition stop? And how does a tradition form?

The once vibrant and spirited student sections were silenced by the echoes of the pandemic. The shift to online learning for one and a half years, coupled with the need to wear masks, changed the core student culture and transformed student sections. The aftermath of COVID-19 left schools grappling with the loss of their once amazing fanbase, which had been crucial in getting people excited to attend games or even attending games at all. The void left by the absence of student sections was felt deeply by students.

Eastside Catholic High School, the home of the Crusaders, was known for having an amazing student section before COVID-19. People would bring cardboard cutouts of players and pass them around, and speakers, confetti cannons, and ribbons made appearances at every game. However, after COVID hit, the student section struggled to regain its momentum. After being isolated for so long, it was hard for students to regain confidence needed to revive traditions and form connections. In a post-pandemic world, the once tight knit community and loud student section sounded like a distant dream to EC students.

To address the challenges faced by student sections in the wake of COVID-19, Eastside Catholic High School took a head on approach to rejuvenate its school spirit. Thus, The Pit Cru was born. Pit Crew is a dedicated student section leader club with the goal of not only returning the Crusader student section to its pre-pandemic state but making it better than ever before. Helping the club is Cameron Weaver, a former student section leader with a passion for helping student sections reach their maximum spirit and potential.

Weaver is 24 years old, a Gonzaga University Alum, and the former leader of Gonzaga’s student section, called “The Kennel Club”. With Weaver in charge, Gonzaga’s student section was one of the best in the nation. Weaver took her passion for being a student section leader and turned it into her career, she started with Biggest Fan company in November 2022, starting as a client specialist who helped college kids start their student sections. Right now, Biggest Fan teaches highschoolers how to run a student section.

Reflecting on her college experience, Weaver shared the following with Metro Prep, “Before COVID the process for getting [Gonzaga] tickets was crazy, you would wait in line for tickets, and there would be a whole football field lengthwise, of kids in line to get tickets. The line would be so long, that people would show up 24 hours beforehand the tickets were even available. They would bring their dorm chairs, and sleeping bags, and sleep outside for the change to get a ticket to the game,” Weaver reflected on her “normal” freshman year experience at Gonzaga, just a year before COVID wiped the stands.

Weaver then shared the aftermath of COVID on the Kennel Club, “After COVID, [Gonzaga] didn’t want people gathering in lines anymore, so they changed it to an online, ticket master type situation, where you had to sit in a queue. People were angry about that, because, you had an equal chance of anybody else to get a ticket, which for your diehard fans, they wanted to earn it and be guaranteed to get a spot. It used to be I really want to go, so I am going to camp out and it tuned into oh tickets are going on sale let’s get them I guess.”

The isolation of peers dulled school spirit and being quarantined for so long, isolation became the tradition.

“I think people in general were just really burnt out during [COVID]. From 2020 to 2021 the Zags went to the championship in March Madness. There were no fans allowed to go to any games, we were not allowed to travel to games or anything,” explained Weaver.

When something as crazy as championships is going on, and fans aren’t allowed to go and support the team, spirit begins to decay, and traditions die out. In order to revive tradition and school spirit, there must be someone guiding the way. At Eastside Catholic, that person is student life director and coach, Elisha Pa’aga.

Pa’aga was born in America Samoa, but grew up in Washington. He attended Eastside Catholic High School and graduated as part of the 2014 class. The spirited leader now works at Eastside as an alum and has seen both the peak and the downfall of the Crusader student section.

Pa’aga reminiscences of the vibrant student sections before COVID, describing old student sections as “a sea or orange and blue.”

“Isolation affected the culture 1000%, and you know they say it takes 21 days to create a habit, we were in quarantine for way longer than 21 days. With the lack of connection, the lack of human interaction, the lack of really just small talk, and all of the things that we took for granted. Even just saying hi to somebody or opening the door, it really had an impact on our social norms,” Pa’aga said.

Without daily interaction, no one remembered how to communicate, no one remembered how to support a culture and community. From being a booming section, to a booing one. How does school culture get revived? How can everything go back to the way it used to be?

Pa’aga proposed a resolution, “Some of those small things that made EC unique, we just need to bring those things back, reteach it, relearn it, get it indoctrinated into our teachers and our students, and just back from the beginning. It’s going to be a different method but it’s the same message.”

Relearning how to promote school spirit and share traditions isn’t a quick process, but students and staff alike are determined to put in the work.

“It’s not just a spontaneous thought, but it is a consistent unified community. You have to work what you have; you can’t expect it to be handed to you. You cannot expect a million-dollar idea to drop from the sky,” continued Pa’aga.

As society looks back on the impact of COVID-19 on student sections, one thing is clear, the echoes of COVID-19 cast silence over the cheers that once echoed through spirited crowds, altering the vibrant essence of student sections. Yet within this challenge, lies an opportunity to restore it.

In the game of reviving traditions, there’s no shortcut. Instead, it’s about students putting in the work and embracing the small things that made those moments special.

The cheers may be quiet now, but the students working to revive school spirit are paving the way for its comeback. The future belongs to those who are willing to go back to the roots and work for the tradition. In doing so, these leaders will create a new chapter of school spirit, chants, celebration, and shared moments.

Remember readers, if you want to start a tradition, you have to go back to the roots.