Mean Spirits

Autumn. Welcome back to school! Hope you’ve done all your summer homework, because now you get to focus on the hundreds of short-term assignments you’ll be expected to complete in your spare time over the next nine months.

Let’s face it, even though we get to appreciate the beautiful foliage, brisk air, and new season of Doctor Who that the fall season brings, it can and often will be a very stressful time for students. So, we find ways to cope. Some people join clubs. Some find comfort in their friends. Some just check out now, and never do any work anyway. Don’t do that. Anyway, the real spirit of fall is defined by the miraculous newfound spirit of our school.

Kennebunk High School has a shining past and a promising future, and in the autumn we love to celebrate the blue and white. But why is our school spirit so fervently displayed during this season, anyway?  After all, fall is when many of us feel a special sense of hatred towards the building, faculty, and other people in general.

Well, the answer is simple: sports. Fall athletic programs start late into summer vacation, and the excitement builds early. So by the time the regular season rolls around, we are truly excited to be on the field, either by representing or cheering on our school. The special sense of pride we feel when rooting for our many sports teams (especially the 3 or 4 successful ones) is unequivocally sweet.

There is a noticeable balance issue in our athletics, though. What REALLY sets Autumn apart is one special sport that we all follow, something some of us have to hear about constantly from our friends on the team. I’m talking about football, people. Why is it a big deal? Where did it come from? Do we cheer for the tennis team, a consistent top 5 in the state? The soccer team, consistently top 5 in the state? Or, God forbid, some girl’s sport? NO! It’s football, football, football. Why? I’ll tell you why.

We live in America. And not just A-Merica, THE-Merica. There is a uniquely patriotic importance placed on the distinct talent of our football teams. Not only that, but the sport itself is so intense that it can only be played once a week, with expensive equipment, and a large number of big, strong people that we seem to pull out of nowhere every fall. Obviously, there is a lot of effort that goes into the game, but the production value is even bigger. The game is hyped up, to the extreme, week after week, because it has to be. In and of itself, this sport has become substantially popular. A home football game these days would be considered a bigger deal than Paul McCartney driving to KHS from England (yeah, DRIVING), walking in the front door, and asking for Bruce Lewia’s autograph. Let’s face it: It’s tradition, and that makes it worth everything.

So we have our answer. Football is the main component of the unstoppable force that drives us to really hate most everyone from Noble, Gorham, Thornton, and Scarborough, not just in the fall, but all year. This hatred is in the interest of love for our own. Because there truly is nothing more magical than freezing to death on a Friday night, watching some beast crush one of your friends into the grass, and feeling the togetherness as you and the rest of the crowd say “Ooh” at the same time.

And there you have it. School spirit. It pulls us together and gives us a sense of purpose in these dark autumn times. But even though it may SEEM as though football is more important than such issues as Syria, Miley Cyrus, and the upcoming season of Doctor Who, let’s remember that it’s just one sport. And school spirit is all about the respect we have for KHS and EVERY STUDENT HERE. So keep the love going, all year long. And when spring comes around, do the right thing. Go watch a tennis match.