Walk around the high school for 15 minutes and you will see at least one kid with bleached blonde hair, one girl with the tips of her hair dyed blue, a couple of kids wearing jerseys and students dressed in all black, pajamas, camouflage, as American flags and more. Everywhere you go, the high school is filled with team spirit.

High school teams use spirit as a way to bond and gain awareness for their sport.

Senior Ina Bando, a captain of the girls swim and dive team, said that team spirit helps the team come together as one.

“I think that team spirit has a lot to do with team bonding and team unity,” Bando said. “Since swimming is an individual sport, we really try to enhance the team bonding throughout the season. Team spirit is a big part of that.”

In order for the spirit to happen, teammates need to work and think together. Sophomore Emily Horigan, a field hockey player, thinks that spirit demonstrates how the team is together.

Graphic by Jade Kwitkwiski

“I think it’s good that everyone participates,” Horigan said. “It shows that we are together as a team and that we care about each other.”

Along with helping teams come together, spirit provides a platform for teams to raise awareness about their meets, games or matches.

“We try to do different, unique, quirky spirits to get people to ask about our meets and gain interest in our team,” Bando said. “It gets people interested in coming to our meets and supporting us.”

Aside from spirit being helpful in spreading awareness about the sport, Horigan considers it one of the most fun parts about being on a team.

“It adds a fun aspect,” Horigan said. “I think it’s fun because you can spot your teammates all around the school. It’s fun to dress up like all your teammates and show everyone that you do a sport for a BHS team.”

Junior Eleanor Fisher has been doing spirit since freshman year with the girls varsity soccer team and says they take it very seriously.

“We typically do the same main [spirits] every year,” Fisher said. “Before I joined the team I bought a bunch of stuff because I knew that spirit was going to be a big part of it. On GVS we go all out for spirit. Normally we have the best spirit and we try to make sure every article of clothing fits the spirit. I still have my clothes from freshman year’s spirit.”

According to Fisher, for team spirit to work, teams have to collaborate, plan and cooperate.

“It helps us come together because we have to talk and decide on what we’re going to do and we all have to do something that we want to do and are excited to do,” Fisher said. “In the morning we usually meet in the atrium and take a picture. It brings us together, it’s fun and you get a picture to remember it.”