Spirit Challenge - Spirit Week

By: Steve Barkley, Director of Activities San Gorgonio High School

Spirit Challenge grew out of a need to improve a rather boring spirit week.  We had to search for something different.  Our spirit week was usually right in the middle of March Madness.  Therefore, the students thought of a tournament style competition.  The first year we drew 16 teams, the next year, 28, the following year over 40 wanted to be involved.  We had to start limiting the number of sign ups.  Spirit challenge transformed our long span without a break from school from tension to relaxation.  The students, whether competing or not, enjoyed the whole week.  An outline, as detailed as I could do, is below.

Begin promoting and working on this at least a month in advance.  There are always small details that need to be taken care of.  We used Sonsational Activities for our blow up games.  We also found other local businesses to donate daily prizes for contestants and winners.  We found a local construction company to donate the plastic for our Tuesday activity.

The student council formed committees much like homecoming week that had different responsibilities:

            1.  Recruitment and sign-ups

            2.  Prizes – local businesses, plaque, etc…

            3.  Promotion – Posters, flyers, bulletins, web site

            4.  Competition – responsible for all games

5.  Spirit - We decorate the school all week with balloons, streamers, posters, etc…  Spirit Day is Friday.

Prior to Spirit Week

1.  Have teams of no more than five competitors sign-up (at least two boys and two girls) and create a name for their team.  Sign ups are for one week only.  Each team gets to come in one week before the actual week starts and make t-shirts that have their names on them.  We usually provided the shirts and the paint for them.

2.  Make sure to have a meeting with each team to go over the rules and the prizes before the week starts.

The Week

1.  The first two days of the event are geared to narrowing down the field of competitors to eight teams.  We used time trials in two separate games (outlined below).

2.  The final days are seeded 1 to 8 in a tournament style competition.

3.  The final day concluded with the annual powder puff football game that night where the winners were introduced and given their prize at half time.

Monday:  Giant Obstacle Course Relay race

(four competitors)

We rented a blow up obstacle course from Sonsational Activities.  Each competitor ran the obstacle course while being timed by referees.  The amount of time of your lunch period will determine how many teams you will need.  Each team will receive a time that will be added to Tuesday’s event.

Tuesday:  This is perhaps the best day – the Giant Slip’n Slide

We obtained two large plastic rolls, the type of plastic that covers wood at a construction site, and then used Johnson’s no tears baby shampoo and water to wet it down so it was very slippery.  Our slip’n slide turned out to be 100’ long.  At the end of the slide was a baby pool filled with spaghetti and individually rapped life savers.  Two teams sent two competitors at a time down the slide to pull out as many life savers as possible in a one-minute time (from the time they left the start).  Each life saver was counted as a second taken off the time of the obstacle course.  The kids loved this activity, actually looked forward to it every year.

The eight teams with the lowest time moved on to Wednesday.

Wednesday:  Sumo Wrestling:  Best of Three

Each team selected three wrestlers (at least one girl) to go one on one in a blind draw match.  Each team could hold out one wrestler to be their “ace in the hole.”  That wrestler would not be a part of the first two matches.  Some teams figured out that there is some strategy involved in this.  You could use your two best at the beginning and automatically win or save them, who knew?  We rented Sumo Suits from Sonsational Activities for the day. 

The four teams that won went on to the semi-final round on Thursday.  Use the same Sumo rules, push them out of the ring once, or throw them down.

The great thing about this day is that the matches went quickly so the rest of the school could get involved in the suits.

Thursday:  Say What Karaoke

The four teams that were left had to perform two songs in front of the school.  The first song was chosen by them, the second was a spin of the wheel.  We had a list of songs for them to choose from in the first round.  The second round, we made a giant spinning wheel with different songs on them that they would perform.  Teams could use props, wigs, etc… that we had accumulated in Student council.  You need to have music on disc or, like we use, computer ready to be cued up to move the competition along.  The lip sing only lasts about 2 minutes.

Judging was done by teachers and administrators on a 1 to 10 scale.  The two teams with the most combined points went on to the final round.

Friday:  Bungee Soccer, High Ball, something that all four competitors could be a part of.

Friday, the final two teams competed against each other in a special event.  We tried to choose something different each year from Sonsational Activities to bring in that would involve all four players from each team.  Depending on the game will depend on how you score it.

The winning team received $100 for winning the competition as well as their name on the perpetual plaque in the showcase.  The $100 was presented at half time of the Powder Puff football game Friday night.

The two finalists were introduced at the Powder Puff Rally on Friday.  We also presented a Most Spirited and Most Sportsmanlike award to two separate teams at the rally.  These were teams usually that went out in one of the first four days.

Spirit Challenge grew into a huge event that the students look forward to every year.  Every year we have a radio station that sends a remote reporter and broadcasts live from the school (our local station is KGGI), usually on Thursday or Friday.

If you have more questions or would like for me to talk with your council, please do not hesitate to ask.  We had a lot of fun with this.  We are also still changing it every year to include more students and faculty teams.

Good Luck and have fun!

Steve Barkley

Director of Activities

San Gorgonio High School

909-388-6057

stephen.barkley@sbcusd.com

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