Friday night lights are back at Midtown with the return of the Varsity Football team after a two year hiatus. The return of this high school tradition, along with others like Homecoming, has increased spirit school-wide. 

After a year of online school and another year without a varsity football team, the return of football has increased school spirit tremendously, something that was truly lacking when the season last year was canceled. But now, school spirit is at an all-time high in years. 

Varsity Brands reports, “students with higher levels of school spirit perform better academically, are more civically engaged, and are happier in general than their less-spirited peers.” School spirit rounds out a community. It benefits athletes, students and administration and creates a sense of belonging and community. Joining together as a school and rooting for the same thing creates a deeper purpose and interconnectedness nothing else can replace.

In the past two years, with the absence of football, support for other sports such as soccer and basketball has grown tremendously. Last year, the girls soccer team made it to the state finals, drawing large crowds even at the championship game, which was over an hour away. Basketball games began to draw more excitement as well, with the boys making it two rounds in the championship bracket. The first football game brought a massive crowd, so the question remains: will this support for other sports stay? And will the added support from football carry into less attended sports games like baseball and volleyball? 

Varsity Brands reports that 93 percent of high school principals “say that parents are more involved in their child’s education when their child has a strong sense of school spirit.” When parents and students are invested in their education, students do better. In fact “students with higher levels of school spirit are significantly more likely than students with low school spirit to get mostly A’s or mostly A’s and B’s in school.”

Currently there are juniors, sophomores and freshmen who have never been to a Midtown pep rally, homecoming or a high school football game. Events like these join the community together. For those who have never experienced such events, they have never felt a sense of school spirit with these events.

This year, that has started, and will continue to change. Building school spirit will take effort from everyone, including administration and student government. Football, support for other sports, along with pep rallies and keeping up with other traditions like Freshman Friday, Senior Assassin and senior crowns will help achieve a better community for us all.