School Spirit Declining

School spirit is arguably one of the most defining factors of a memorable high school experience, yet as each generation ages,, the decline in school spirit in certain areas and ages can be found to be just as consistent. 

            One major factor of school spirit is the merchandise available to represent our school. Previously, Newtown High School had a school store in the room that is now the security office. This shop had lanyards, hats, sweatshirts, sweatpants, and other items. 

            Now, most Newtown High School merchandise that is worn by students is sports affiliated, not a general “Newtown High” or “Newtown Nighthawks” piece of clothing. Although this is one way to represent our school, those merch shops are often only open for a short window of time and only during the season of that sport. Additionally, this merchandise takes almost the whole season to ship.. 

            “I think I went in there once to buy a lanyard for one of my friends, but I don’t remember that ever being something that was impacting what people wore,” Megan Goyda, NHS physical education teacher, softball and field hockey coach, and alumna said. 

            NHS science teacher Trent Harrison graduated in 1990 and played lacrosse and golf Harrison started teaching in 2006, and has seen drastic changes from both his own high school years and his teaching years. 

            “When there were spirit days, everybody dressed up. And now when there are spirit weeks it seems only the seniors really participate,’’ Harrison said. “We were the Newtown Indians, and we had shirts that had ‘Indians’ down the sleeves, we had sweatpants, sweatshirts. Now, we have different logos, we have different colors, so unfortunately I do not see a bunch of school spirit.”

            Former Newtown High School Athletic Director Gregg Simon, from 2006 to 2016, had a rule that limited the base colors of any jersey to be either white or royal blue. Now, certain sports use base colors such as black, grey, light blue, and even some sorts of gray-gold in addition to white and sometimes royal blue. 

            “I like the blue and white, because for me it's tradition. I understand why some teams are using an alternate jersey, and I think it's fun to wear once or twice,” Goyda later added. “But I think it gets to be too much sometimes. Like softball, we have three different uniforms, and the combinations that come out of that are crazy.”

            But should our school colors be minimized for more appealing jerseys? After all, they are one of the most important representations of Newtown High School. 

            “I like it more without the gold because black and blue are better colors,” NHS junior Frankie Cannizzo, member of the NHS Tennis team, said. “In tennis we have white, blue, and black.” 

            “Some people might say, ‘Yeah, I don’t like blue and Gold,’” Harrison added, “then maybe it's time to rebrand our school colors.”

Newtown Middle School on the other hand has a completely different mascot as well as completely different colors, which might be another factor contributing to incoming classes not having a sense of school pride. 

            “When I started here in 2007, that's how it always was, they were green and gold, and they were the Lions,”NHS Athletic Director Matt Memoli said. 

            Memoli is also involved in youth athletics because of his roles as  athletic director and because of his two children who play multiple sports each. 

            “I have people that are coming to me from the youth and they’re like, ‘where do I get just Newtown Nighthawks gear?’” Memoli said. “And I’m like, ‘well, that's a great question.”’

Newtown High School Graphics and former Head Football Coach Steve George is also an NHS graduate who remembers when he played at Blue and Gold Stadium. 

“It was massive. It would be packed and you’d have the band there,” George said when asked about the amount of school spirit and support at games when he was a student.. “Mostly football because we didn’t have a lot of offerings that you guys have now.”

The merchandise and jersey colors are not the only things that are important to school spirit. Newtown High School currently has two Pep Rallies a year, one in the fall and one in the spring, but as Goyda recalls from her high school years, they only started having a single pep rally each year when she was a senior. 

Newtown's pep rallies were brought back after being terminated by COVID-19. This year’s pep rally was held on April 4. It was well attended, but not many seniors were there. Harrison has also noticed the minimal amounts of seniors attending events like the pep rallies and wonders why students are skipping out on their last year. 

One thing that is totally optional for all students at Newtown High School is spirit week. NHS has at least one or two a school year, yet many students could not say when they were.. 

NHS junior Nicole Tabor is part of the Girls Soccer program at NHS, and from her perspective, spirit week is almost nonexistent. She claims people participate in pajama day because it's comfortable and easy, but any other theme is usually disregarded. 

 “I think it's because there's a conformity issue where people think that they’ll stand out or they’ll be judged for what they wear,” Tabor said. 

NHS sophomore Alexa Gonzalez plays softball and track and is the manager for the football team and agrees with Tabor. 

“Many kids are scared to step out of their comfort zone,” Gonzalez said. “I think that it's very common for seniors to participate more because they already know everyone and it's their last year so they would go all out. I would too!”

“People would be more inclined to dress to stand out, like that was kind of the cultural aspect, whereas now it’s like people follow a trend on Tik Tok and everyone starts to wear the exact same thing, “ Tabor ladder. “Basically copying and pasting each other and it's kind of sad.”

            “There is a lot of school spirit when it comes to football games, but there's none for any other sports. I forget that we even have spirit days, and I’m not even excited for them,” NHS junior Nikita Mukka, a member of theColor Guard said. 

                        “Even for color wars. Seniors wear black, Juniors wear white, Freshmen I think are red, and Sophomores are green. Like, where are our school colors?” Harrison said. 

            Students, staff, administration, student government, and PTSA all work together on organizing these events, but some feel as if the students who are currently attending the school should be generating the ideas. The problem is, there is less and less participation in student government each year, therefore teachers and parents are coming up with ideas that students may not be very interested in. 

            “I think it's because people are just in their phones, and they're not socializing outside of their phones, they’re socializing through their phones,” Harrison said. 

According to George, who graduated from Newtown High School in 1993, there was a lot of “Newtown Indians” merchandise (former mascot) being worn by students at the time. 

            But when George became the coach for the football team at NHS, things were drastically different. 

            “I think it's a lot better than it used to be. We didn’t really have a big following back then,” George said. “Now it’s packed in the game and the band and everything else. We used to have to fight for the band to come to the games.”

            In response to the changes in jersey colors, George stated that the football team’s jerseys were strictly royal blue when he was head coach and that the official school colors are royal blue and vegas gold.

            From a student perspective out on the field, football manager Gonzalez can confirm that though many people come to watch the football games, most leave by the third quarter. 

            “I feel like only the parents that really understand the game interact yet we have a whole student section that doesn’t give enough energy,” Gonzalez said. “I feel like we need to be louder to motivate the players, not just when they get a touchdown!”

            Gonzalez also stated that for each theme that the Hawks Nest leaders choose, the student section executes and follows it well each time. 

Whether the decline in participation of school spirit is evident at Newtown High School or not, it is clearly dependent upon the current and upcoming classes to keep and grow our trend of Nighthawk enthusiasm in merchandise, sports, and spirit events in much more consistent waves. 

“If we want school spirit I think something has to be done. Student body, student government, PTSA, athletics, administration, everyone needs to get together,” Harrison said. “There’s nothing wrong with change, but there is something wrong with apathy.”