Spirit Week welcomes an influx of school spirit, all before the important homecoming game and dance.
Barstow homecoming festivities are more than just a school dance. The fun-filled spirit week is an exciting way to celebrate homecoming and create excitement for the basketball games and dance.
To mark the start of the week, Barstow Pep Club decorated the hallways to match the theme, “Let’s Get Groovy.” The spirit week theme parallels the homecoming theme, “The Grammy’s.”
In the halls, club members put up streamers, posters, and paper creations, including a construction paper jukebox, cassette tapes, and a variety of posters. The senior hallway, for example, displays a sign saying “I’m feeling 22,” an homage to Taylor Swift’s “22” and their graduating year. Music note and record mobiles also line the halls, while a variety of CDs and records are stuck on the walls. The junior hallway is the most colorful, with a 70s themed wave design made of construction paper displayed across the hall, with psychedelic-style flowers.
Senior Class of ’22 sign (Credit: Avani Lakkireddy ’24). STUCO and Pep Club picked a music theme for this year’s spirit week (Credit: Avani Lakkireddy ’24). Disco balls and streamers lined the hallway (Credit: Avani Lakkireddy ’24). 
Pep Club President Rosemary Warren edited teachers’ faces onto loved album covers, such as this One Direction cover with Scott Mendenhall, Scott Huppe, Kyle Dembinski, and Gabe Cook (Credit: Avani Lakkireddy). 70s-themed waves in the sophomore-junior (Credit: Avani Lakkireddy ’24). Headphones with music notes and Spotify codes in the sophomore hallway (Credit Avani Lakkireddy ’24).
“[The decorations are] absolutely stunning and beautiful.” said Alex Hart ‘24.
The Pep Club also stuck myriad spotify codes to the walls, with different genres of music connected to each code. Almost six examples of “Homecoming” by Kanye West were recorded around the halls, while “Summerboy” by Lady Gaga, “False God” by Taylor Swift, “Brooklyn Baby” by Lana Del Ray, and “Industry Baby” by Lil Nas X were popular scans for the upper school.
Hart ‘24 added that he “really liked the spotify codes” and “saw a bunch of people scanning them.”
Spirit Week’s themed days were chosen by Pep Club and Student Council. Each day corresponded with a song that describes the theme.
On Monday, students across the upper school dressed in pajamas for Pajama Day, a classic, especially fitting for those who literally just want to roll out of bed. “Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars posed as the obvious option, with lyrics like “Today I don’t feel like doing anything” perfectly encompassing the highschool experience. Monday included the most participants, perhaps because of its ease, with most opting for plaid pajama looks paired with oversized t-shirts and hoodies on top.
“Pajama day was the best,” said Mateo Mountford ‘24, “I was comfortable all day long.”
Some, like STUCO President Maddie Bauman ‘22, and Precalculus teacher Ms. Julia Kramchuster, participated on a more grand scale, who both wore fuzzy chenille robes with slippers.
To the tune of “Big Green Tractor” by Jason Aldeam, students celebrated Country day on Tuesday, where plaid shirts, flared jeans, and ten-gallon hats made a widespread appearance.
Next, student leadership chose “Anything but a Backpack” day, an already viral sensation that grew popular on social media platforms like Tik Tok. In these short videos, students were shown bringing in objects as large as a kayak to carry their supplies rather than their usual backpack. While no one showed up with a boat, Barstow still displayed creativity in the utter eccentricity of their backpack replacements. With “Backpack, Backpack” from Dora, the Explorer, students showed up with a variety of items including a lawn chair, a shopping cart, a dog stroller and more.
On Thursday, students wore white shirts with their version of a white lie about themselves. “Little White Lies” by One Direction was the song for the day, where each student poked fun at themselves. Some common themes included personality based shirts like Lia Adam’s ‘24, “I’m not judgy,” and Kiley Bourke ‘24’s “I am a quiet person.”
“White lie is my favorite because I’ve already made my shirt,” Joe Whitfill ‘24.
Finally, Pep Club celebrated the seniors, with the traditional class colors for the spirit week Friday. With seniors in black, juniors in white, sophomores in green, and freshmen in gray, each grade wore their respective color for the pep assembly that took place at the end of the day. “22” by Taylor Swift celebrated the seniors and their accomplishments, with most receiving college decisions and starting to close the final chapter of their high school experience.
At the end of the day Friday, the annual homecoming pep assembly was kicked off by performances from the dance and cheer teams, who encouraged participation and hyped up the crowd before the homecoming court announcements.
Next, the girls tennis team was then recognised for their impressive sweep at state. Coach Tom O’Brien, the Barstow tennis coach, was also recognized for his recent national title, Coach of the Year Award, presented by Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA).
O’Brien’s acceptance speech was preempted by a standing ovation from the crowd of middle and upper-schoolers. He made sure to thank his wife and family, the Barstow School, his assistant coach, Terry Downs, and finally, the students on his teams.
The pep assembly ended with the annual senior-faculty basketball game. The game started off with quick senior vs. faculty intimidation, with Mr. Dan Mcknickle, captain of the faculty team, staring down his son, Bennett Mcnickle ‘22, captain of the senior team. After the seniors won the jump ball, the ball moved up and down the court until Bennett Mcnickle scored a perfect three for the seniors. With this momentum, the seniors quickly dominated the game, executing multiple layups, and one stellar dunk from senior Luke Whitfill. The faculty scored their first point from middle school French Teacher, Mme. Valluet.
Unfortunately for the faculty, the seniors continued to score, winning the game 18-4. This year, the seniors also received a much needed comeback, as they suffered a glaring loss in both last year’s senior vs. faculty basketball game and this year’s fall senior vs. faculty soccer game.
“The senior vs. faculty basketball game is always my favorite part of the pep assemblies,” said Mountford ‘24.
Accompanying the dance, students also attended the homecoming basketball game. Since Barstow lacks a football team, an energized student section flocked the Varsity Gym for the four games that preceded the next night’s homecoming dance.
First, Barstow’s C-team, made mostly of freshmen, played Van Horn. In a shocking comeback that encompassed almost ten points, the team went into overtime, mostly thanks to Rishabh Sood’s ‘25 well-placed three-pointers. Unfortunately, the team lost by a short margin of 39-37.
Raj Fanaswala ‘24 predicted the gripping game, stating “C team is gonna be so hype.”
Next, junior varsity took the court, playing well, but coming up short against Van Horn’s offense. The girls team played next, and thanks to an array of three-pointers by Chanelle Anderson ‘24, stellar steals by Samantha Georgie ’22 and Skyler Vince ‘24, and impeccable play-making by Holly Woods ‘24, the girls came out on top to the tune of 50-46.
Lastly, the varsity boys team started their game, with aggressive passes by both Emmett Pearce ‘22 and Carter Michaelis ‘22. Aidan Lawlor ‘24 sunk some early threes, but Van Horn’s offensive point guards kept Barstow defense in check, sinking routine threes with rare misses. Things started to look up however, when Joshua Thornton ‘24 made a buzzer beating three pointer that tied the game going into halftime.
After the half, however, Van Horn’s point guard partnership laid almost 9 unanswered points in the third quarter. The boys did not recover from this deficit, but continued to play aggressive, even after Pearce’s slight hamstring injury. The game ended at 57-68, but the student section continued to voice their support after the loss, demonstrating empowered school spirit.
At the varsity boy’s halftime, Joe Fox, Director of Middle and Upper School, announced the students in this year’s homecoming court. First, representatives from 9th, 10th, and 11th grades were announced with a short introduction of each person. Julia Luetje and Miles McEachen ‘25 represented the freshmen, Holly Woods and Dawood Qadeer ‘24 represented 10th and Aaram Salam and Elizabeth Boyce ‘23 represented the juniors.
“I’m a really big fan of our sophomore court,” said Whitfill ‘24.
Then, the nominated seniors walked the diagonal red carpet, announced similarly to the other representatives. Maddie Bauman, Bahram Neghaban, Christian Alldredge, Lorelei Culver, Erin Pryor, Chad Luetje, Maxwell Parr, and Sophie Yagan (‘22) were voted as the senior nominations this year. The pairs lined up at the front of the gym, and Mr. Fox read the winners of the court.
This year, Parr and Bauman won the honor of homecoming king and queen, voted in by the upper school student body. Bauman is also the student council president, while Parr was senior captain of the varsity soccer team in fall.
The homecoming dance was held at Ironhorse Country Club, rather than at Barstow like the previous Winter Formal dance. Students look forward to the change of venue, as there will be more space to dance, and less risk of disrupting faculty and teachers.
As Hart ‘24 put it, “I think it’s better because in the venue we will actually be able to have drinks and do more stuff.”
Although, some people are annoyed at the $15 entry fee, which was raised by the cost of an off-campus venue. “It’s just costing more money,” said Fanaswala ‘24.
“The theme is cool,” said Parr ‘22. Opportunities to be photographed in front of a VIP backdrop and a variety of glow sticks were all immediately used by students, who enjoyed the musical section at the dance, as many suggested the songs played.
This year’s homecoming spirit week, games, and dance were definitely fun-filled activities where ths student boy could rally around resounding school spirit. We can’t wait to see how STUCO and Pep Club will wow us next year.
Edit 3/1/2022: This article has been edited to correct Miles McEachen’s name.
