The sophomores creating a human pyramid. Photo by Jennica Ruan.
Written by Ronald Batista and Jennica Ruan
Malden High’s spirit week occurs annually the week of Thanksgiving break and the Malden vs Medford Thanksgiving game. Spirit week consists of Pajama Day on Monday, Wacky Tacky Day on Tuesday, and closes the week off with our annual Pep Rally, also known as Blue and Gold Day, which occurs on Wednesday. All grades can participate in their designated spirit team by signing up during lunches before spirit week. Teams are selected at random with around 16 students per team to represent their grade.
Tradition is a big part of the history behind spirit week and how it has grown to be such an important at Malden High every year. Heather Northrop, a freshman guidance counselor at Malden High, has been involved with the helping of spirit week since she came here eight years ago. This year celebrates 130 years of Malden vs Medford which is “ the second oldest rivalry in the country”.
Each grade has its own class advisor who helps their class through the activities planned throughout the four years of high school. The class advisors lead the team through spirit week, helping with any challenges and creating the banners. Each class has its own banner to creatively show the school’s spirit.
With help from the National Honor Society, all the scores are tallied up each day for each of the activities that are held. Paul Marques, the advisor of NHS, states that “spirit week started almost twenty years ago by some people who have retired and [he has] helped enhance it and over the years it has become what it is”.
Beginning the week on Monday, the seniors took the lead on Pajama Day . Behind them were the freshman, then the juniors, and finally the sophomores. On the second day of spirit week, the seniors continued in the lead for wacky tacky day. Behind them came the freshman, sophomores, and finally the juniors. On the last day of spirit week, The seniors took home the grand win, with 40 points, then the juniors, with 35 points, behind them were the sophomores, with 27 points, and last but not least, freshman, with 17 points.
The Pep Rally started with each of the spirit teams playing volleyball. It then proceeded with the singing of the National Anthem, sung by the school’s chorus. After that, three different groups performed. First, the Step Team came on and started off the pep rally, followed by the breakdancing group, Airbound. Finally, the Malden High cheerleaders brought a great performance to end the show and begin with the final round of activities
After the performances, all of the classes competed in a basketball free throwing competition, Then led to the next activity, human pyramids. Each pyramid consists of ten people with four people on the bottom and less people as they go up. After the pyramids, each class competed in an over-under competition. This game is exactly what it says. A basketball is passed over someone’s head to the next person who has to pass it from under their legs onto the next. The final competition was tug of war between the juniors and seniors and ended with the two classes going against each other for the top spot where the juniors finished the pep rally with a win.
