This year’s Grimm’s Fairytales-themed Spirit Week worked its magic in bringing the student body together. Eleven groups of organizations, involving nearly 1,000 students, strove to become the 25th Homecoming Spirit Week winners and fulfill the week’s goal of coming together as a student body.
The first place group — consisting of Delta Phi Epsilon, Phi Alpha Delta and Chi Upsilon Sigma — had the theme of Hansel and Gretel. They edged the Little Red Cap-themed group that consisted of the Ambassadors, Delta Upsilon Psi, Delta Sigma Pi and the Synergy dance company. Coming in third place was the Cinderella-themed group of Phi Kappa Psi, Delta Zeta, Black Student Union and Phi Beta Sigma.
Kappa Delta, Sigma Pi and Kappa Alpha Psi dominated in the field events as they finished first in volleyball, the three-legged race and dizzy bat. Phi Kappa Psi, Delta Zeta, BSU and PBS also had a strong showing with a first-place finish in the potato sack race and second place finishes in the human pyramid and the three-legged race.
“We definitely prepared to win for every event, but it really is a lot of fun just getting out there and competing with all of the different organizations,” said senior criminology major and Phi Kappa Psi’s homecoming chair Willy Allan.
The close competition in the field events set the stage for a showdown at Friday night’s lip sync and dance. PhiAD, DPhiE and CUS took first place in lip-sync and fourth place in dance. The Ambassadors, DPsi, DSP and Synergy took first for dance and Zeta Tau Alpha came in second place for lip sync.
“I definitely wouldn’t want to be a judge and have to decide between the performances, because they are all really well put together and everyone gave a lot of effort,” said Niki Haas, sophomore special education and psychology double major and member of the LDP.
The DPhiE, PhiAD and CUS lip sync team worked long nights every day for three weeks prior to the competition, according to junior interdisciplinary major and team member, Jess Moran.
“Even though it was long and time consuming, I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world,” she said.
According to Stefanie Grossman, who co-chaired the Homecoming Spirit Week Committee with junior Tyler Liberty, planning for the week began in February when they began working with their advisor, Jess Claar, to submit their budget.
Since then, the two have been having weekly meetings with each group’s captains, figuring out logistics for every facet of Spirit Week and attending every event of the week.
For the 25th anniversary of Spirit Week, Grossman and Liberty brought back two classic events — men’s cheerleading and women’s tug-of-war.
“We chose to bring (men’s cheerleading) back because we’ve seen videos and heard how fun the event can be. The teams get really into it and have their men dress up and do crazy stunts,” Grossman said. “It’s a fun event where guys get to make fools of themselves for Spirit Week points.”
“While it was great to win, the friendships I made and the great times I had were the real prize,” Moran said. “To sum it all up, we danced, we cried, we laughed and had a really, really, really good time.”
