This year, Lexington High School football games have seen an increase in school spirit. These displays of spirit, including wearing all pink for breast cancer awareness, neon clothing, and construction-themed clothing, have created a more unified LHS community. 

The LHS Hype Squad, led by co-presidents PJ Gruskin, Alara Rago, and Isabel Lensmire, is at the forefront of these developments. The club aims to promote school spirit and create an inclusive community. One of their core beliefs is that spreading school spirit provides a source of motivation for the team.

“I think that a huge part of the games is cheering them on. It’s a lot easier to do that when everyone is wearing something that helps hype you up when you’re at that game and shows the collectiveness of everyone there,” Rago said.

Lensmire also described how the accessibility of school spirit is crucial to bringing LHS together.

“It’s something that’s accessible by anything, like people can obviously take it as far as they want. That’s a personal decision, but we want it to feel like something people are able to do and enjoy,” Lensmire said.

Additionally, social media plays an important role in spreading awareness of spirit weeks across LHS.

“We tried to take a picture of anybody who allowed us to, and we tried to post pictures of people around LHS wearing the spirit,” Gruskin said. “I think the main thing is that when people see other people doing it or how many other people did it, it just grows from there. By the end of the week, almost everybody was doing it.” 

Nelson Stephen, the starting quarterback of the LHS Varsity Football Team, accentuated how school spirit motivates the team’s drive to win for their school.

“You walk down the halls and you see everybody who says, ‘Oh, they’re gonna be there tonight.’ That brings everyone together. Watching the team play and hopefully bring the dub home, it brings the school together,” Stephen said.

This increase in school spirit has resulted in more excitement before football games, but also a larger sense of unity among the different communities within LHS.

“At the end of the day, you’re playing for the name in front of your jersey, rather than the bag,” Stephen said. “So you’re playing for Lexington and seeing the people of Lexington come out and support you and have the spirit guys are just as important as the people in the field.”