Posing against the walls adorned with American flag capes, four-leaf clover scarves, blush stenciled hearts, and gold sequined dresses, students captured their best outfits for Holiday Day as other members of their grade stepped through hoops, tugged on rope, and raced with three legs during lunch activities.Students showed up to school decked out in their best holiday-themed attire for the second day of Spirit Week. Freshmen’s theme was the Fourth of July, with sophomores dressed up for St. Patrick’s Day, juniors dressed up in Valentine’s Day apparel, and seniors donning their best New Year’s outfits. 

The day’s festivities began with the school-wide Lip Dub, a single-shot video taken throughout the school to showcase our majors and biggest clubs. Students were released from their third period classes at 9:15 am to go to their proper places throughout campus. 

Students waited at their assigned spots on campus, holding up their respective club signs or waving around holiday-themed props they had for their outfits. Band majors stood on the blue cafeteria tables, relaying notes back and forth as communications junior Adam Goldstick rushed around campus to film the video. 

After three takes, the Lip Dub was completed ahead of schedule at around 10:50 a.m. and students headed back to class before the Field Day games. For the upperclassmen, the Lip Dub was a familiar in the schedule of Spirit Week. However, the school-wide video was a completely new spectacle for the freshmen.

“[It was] just really fun, hanging out with friends, screaming in front of the camera,” communications freshman Cooper Weisman said. “[The Lip Dub] being an entire school thing, [and] us coming together. I think it’s really cool.”

After the Lip Dub and the second part of third period, the Field Day games commenced on the soccer field during lunch. The competition began with the Hoop Chain game, where each grade stood in a line, with the participants holding hands, and attempted to get each person through a hula hoop that was passed down the line. In a heated and tangled race, the freshmen came in first, with the juniors, sophomores, and seniors taking second, third, and fourth place, respectively.

“Before today, I didn’t actually do anything and it was kind of unexpected. So right after, I felt so much adrenaline,” communications freshman Manha Chowdhury said after completing Hoop Chain. “It was really amazing. I didn’t think I could do it. I’ve had field days before, it’s just that it was never anything like this. It was really, really cool.”

Soon after Hoop Chain, students from every grade rushed over to another part of the field in a blur of blue, red, green, and gold to watch the Three-legged Race. In this game, students were attached to another person in their grade by one of their legs using a band. The participants then had to walk together from one end of grass to the other without falling or disjoining their banded legs. Juniors came in first, with seniors, sophomores, and freshmen trailing behind in second, third, and fourth place, respectively.

The Three-legged Race was followed by the Gumball Spoon Race, where one person from each grade had to balance a gumball in a plastic spoon with the tip of the spoon resting in their mouth. The participants had to walk from the front of the line of their classmates to another point across the grass without dropping the gumball. If the gumball was dropped, the participant would have to start over from the beginning of the line.

“It was pretty good. I think I did decent[ly],” visual sophomore William Dhana said. “Everyone’s so hyped up during these spirit games, and it’s fun to play and compete.

The final activity played during lunch was Tug of War. In the game, an equal number of students from each grade gripped their respective side of a rope, which had yellow caution tape tied to the middle of it, hovering over a cone set in between the two grades. The grade that got the tape to pass the cone on their side first won. 

The first two grades to compete were sophomores and seniors, with crowds of students from both grades cheering on their classmates and recording the monumental moment when the flag would pass the cone. Sophomores beat the seniors within about 20 seconds, going on to compete in the final round

“[Tug of War] was pretty emasculating this year to be completely honest,” communications senior Tommy McCabe said. “The sophomores are very strong, without a doubt. I just really would’ve liked to have a face-off with the juniors.”

In the second round of Tug of War, the juniors went against the freshmen, with the Class of 2021 coming out victorious. The final round was between the class of 2021 and the Class of 2022. After a visible struggle between the two sides, the juniors ended up winning the entire game, pulling the rope far past the cone on their side. 

“[It was] a pretty glorious moment actually, because this is the first time our class has ever come on top,” vocal junior Arman Khoshbin said. “I thought we were losing there in the first half. They really had us in the first half, but we really brought it through, and we held on to the line and came out victorious.”

For more Muse coverage on Spirit Week, be sure to check out www.themuseatdreyfoos.com or on social media @themuseatdsoa.