Spirit Week winded its way through dress-up days, after school competitions, and a finale football game during a week which was all Senate-organized to excite people for Homecoming weekend. Each day, students could compete, sing along, or dress up to represent their school spirit. The Union Street Journal spent the week covering different activities for the school; see below.

Monday

Super Smash Bros. Tournament

Creek’s first event to kick off the 2024 spirit week was the annual Super Smash Bros Tournament Commentator Christian Baldwin hosted. Baldwin’s commentating demanded knowledge about Super Smash Bros, and a dedication to bringing energy to the whole tournament. According to Baldwin, it was quite a challenge.

“I would say [commentating] is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do,” Baldwin said. “You have to be thinking three steps ahead of everything. You have to be aware of what two characters are playing, you have to be aware of the stage and how that affects the players, and about previous matches with players and how they played.”

Baldwin wanted to bring everyone together and include everyone, even if they weren’t playing. He hopes it brings the crowd year after year and keeps people wanting to play and show up each and every spirit week. 

“This main focus was to really have the kids engaging with the whole event and I could really tell they have a lot of fun with each other,” Baldwin said.

Dodgeball Tournament

Students duked it out at the West gyms Monday night in a fast-paced dodgeball tournament. The team “Boys Are Buzzin’” was victorious, even though their team wasn’t complete until right before the tournament.

“I just had a lot of fun because, well, I wasn’t even supposed to play in this thing. My brother called me up last minute because one of his friends disappeared,” sophomore Spencer Hutchins said. “I love all his friends. And it was just a really hype experience.”

Activities Director Kelly Devitt-Prevost helped run the event and she was very happy with the atmosphere throughout the audience and the competitors.

“It’s a good way to be competitive and to have friends get together and have fun together,” Devitt-Prevost said. “You’re always gonna get a bunch of kids that are super competitive, upset that they don’t win…but I thought the sportsmanship was really good.”

Not only were contenders sportsmanlike, but many were athletes.

“We were down in every single game and we managed to come back,” Hutchins said. “It was amazing. We had two baseball players, too, so it was just pure fun and we just did whatever we did, we defeated the odds.”

Tuesday

Powderpuff Tournament

On Tuesday night, the four grades faced off against each other for the Powderpuff tournament. The game, which is played in multiple rounds, pits seniors against freshmen, and juniors against sophomores before each winning team then competes for the championship. This year, after beating the freshmen 21-7, the seniors took home the crown, beating the juniors 28-0. 

A significant number of players in the game have previous experience with the sport.

“I’m on the varsity girls’ flag team, so that’s why I joined [Powderpuff],” senior Giselle Yokomichi said.

Their experience helped them excel during the game, and hold a stronger bond with the other members of the Powderpuff game. 

For many players, the team spirit and collaboration was the highlight of the game. “The team aspect [between] the senior girls has really come together, so far, and during practice,” Yokomichi said.

Wednesday

Jazz On The Green 

Parents and students joined to listen to Creeks annual “Jazz On The Green” performance. The performance was hosted by the Union St. Jazz Choir after school on Wednesday. 

“Everybody did really well,” junior Elliot Moxcey said. “This was my first time hearing everybody all together, and my jaw dropped at some people.”

Students rehearsed outside of class for their solo songs which they picked themselves. Before the performance they practiced their group songs together.

“We don’t actually spend time in class working on jazz songs,”  senior Daphne Menter said. “We spend all of our time working on the groove songs, and we learn our solo songs outside of class, and we have 15 ish minutes to rehearse with the combo.”

From the approval of the director Adam Cave students picked their own songs and practiced them on their own time. Students heard everyone’s solos together the night of the performance for the first time. Only rehearsing the group songs during school hours and putting logistics together at the last minute left Menter feeling happy with their performance. 

“I’m pretty proud of myself. It’s a big thing to do,” Menter said. 

Family Feud

Senior Grayden Robb took Steve Harvey’s spot as the “Family Feud” host in the Creek-themed trivia competition on Wednesday night. Teams of four tried to guess answers given by a survey of 100 bruins.

The “Chillas,” with sophomore Wade Cutter, won the competition. 

“Only reason we came out was because we had some other friends who were bragging that they were going to win the whole thing,” Cutter said. “So we put a little last second group together and got the win.”

Junior Camille Baranek led the “Family Feud” committee, and she thought the event went well, even with some technical difficulties and hiccups with questions.

“I think it’s a really fun event, and it really brings us together and brings up Creek spirit,” Baranek said. “The teams were really excited.”

Cutter enjoyed the competition too, and he hopes that more people show up to play and to watch in next year’s competition.

“Honestly, it was kind of disappointing this year because it was only people who were playing that came out,” he said. “It was fun this year, it’ll be fun next year, I just think…more people should come.”

Thursday

Spirit Bus

On Thursday, over 100 students spent their day traveling to 14 feeder elementary and middle schools, spreading Creek spirit, handing out gifts, and dancing to marching band tunes. The project, Spirit Bus, is organized annually by the activities office and Student Senate in order to excite kids across the district about their future path at Creek. 

For many students who attended the Spirit Bus, participating was a full-circle moment. “Every single time the Spirit Bus came to Belleview or Campus where I went, I was just so hyped,” senior marching band drum major Coleman Rissmiller said. “I just wanted to make those kids feel as excited as I did after I was there.” 

The importance of the Spirit Bus lies in the desire to get more young students involved with Creek. “After seeing both my siblings, my brother expressed to me how excited he was to go to homecoming when he attends Creek in two years,” senior senate member Agnes Holena said.

A group of students in the Senate’s Spirit Committee organized the event, coordinating with other schools and Creek’s performing groups. 

“Those on the committee had to coordinate amongst all sports, band, cheer, and poms in order to keep the day running smoothly,” Holena said. “In addition, they also had to figure out logistics such as the bus groups, chants, school specific details, and more. It definitely isn’t an easy activity to plan, but in my opinion, it’s totally worth it.”

At every school, Spirit Bus leaders would perform call-back cheers with younger students, and even specialized one chant about bananas to entertain elementary students. Creek students dressed as bananas would perform a dance, chanting that Creek was “bananas.”

“Being a banana was amazing. Honestly, it was so much fun,” Rissmiller said. “The kids loved it. I think it was definitely one of the best moments I’ve had here at Creek.”

Hypnotist

On Thursday night, Creek students experienced a thrilling performance with a professional Hypnotist in the Fine Arts theater. DECA, Creek’s business club, invited Brian Imbus to come to Creek and put on a show for students during Spirit Week.

Students, who were nominated by other clubs at Creek, came up on stage and were hypnotized by Imbus. The students followed his instructions, making the crowd laugh while pretending their shoe was a gas mask, and that they were on a crashing airplane.

Friday

Pep Assembly

On Friday, students gathered in the West Gymn to celebrate the end of Spirit Week with performances from diverse dance groups, chants from Student Senate members, games featuring Principal Ryan Silva, and more. 

“The pep assembly has always been important to me because of the energy it brings me [joy] before such a big day and weekend,” said senior senator Charlie Stern, who hosted the assembly. “It’s really cool how we are all brought together as a school. It’s definitely really important for building up our school spirit.”

Senate coordinated with the Activities office in order to have the event run smoothly. “The process takes a couple of weeks. Our committee splits up so we have a group working on the script for the assembly, and another group reaching out to performing groups to come to the assembly,” Stern said. “It takes some effort to plan and practice, but I’m glad with the way that it turned out today.”

Homecoming Football Game

On Friday night, Creek’s varsity football competed against Pine Creek for the homecoming game. Creek struggled to maintain a significant lead throughout the game, and consistently missed key passes into the end zone. Despite this, the team completed the game with a 21-14 win. 

Even though the game was lower-scoring compared to Creek’s record, most players believed they played successfully. “I think the team played [well], it felt regular playing against Pine Creek,” senior middle linebacker Marquevious Lee (#5) said.

After the game, players celebrated winning the homecoming game, and appreciated the fact that the team continued to play well. “It felt good, thanks to the coaches and players, to stay in there and adjust around, and stay together, to come out with the win,” Lee said.

See more moments from the week below.