This week, March 21-25, is spirit week here at Loyola Academy where there is a new theme each and every day.

The week began with pajamas and crazy socks on Monday. The real fun, however, was in the gym during flex.

After a tumultuous intramural basketball tournament, two teams competed against each other in an exciting championship game during flex on Monday afternoon. The “Daniel Crawfords” beat the “El Mans” in a stunning 8-7 upset.

“It was so nice,” said junior Justin Trott. “Everyone was cheering for Crawford and Auer.”

The game displayed a series of exciting twists and turns. Notably, Junior Daniel Crawford scored a contested layup at a pivotal moment to put his team up by one, and Junior Jaleel Soaga hit an electric three pointer that earned critical momentum for his team.

Jaleel said later that the game was probably, “one of the funnest things [he’s] ever done at Loyola Academy.”

Students are now looking forward to the next intramural season and towards next year’s basketball tournament.

On Tuesday, the theme of our day was “groutfit,” also known as the day where the entire school wears gray. Though this day had an incredibly dreary theme, the fun did not stop in the East Gym where there were multiple inflatables present for students to horse around on. 

Groutfit day, which is a theme one day each and every time we have a spirit week, is a tradition that needs to be changed. Tuesday was a day that was made dreary, not just because of the ugly weather outside, but also because of the boring nature of the clothing inside the building. On days where it is gray on the outside and gray on the inside, it is no wonder that people are dragging their feet by the end of the day.

Spirit week is one week out of the semester where we should all be getting excited for the next coming months. This school year is quickly coming to a close and this spirit week is just one of the things during this long stretch of weird weather and tiring school weeks that helps us to keep looking forward. 

Gray is a color that is often associated with words like dreary, monotone, and boring. Walking around a building where everyone is dressed the same is one thing, but we could find a much better theme for our spirit week that could replace groutfit day. Having every grade wear a different color, for example, would allow for a fun twist on the idea of unity that groutfit holds. 

On Wednesday morning, Loyola’s campus was seeing double.

The theme for the spirit day was twin or group day. Students did a fantastic job of joining  with friends to create fantastic outfits, making it difficult to tell who is who. Juniors Henry FitzSimons and Patrick Halleron look fantastic with matching Irish shirts. As Kairos has been becoming more popular this month, Kairos groups wore matching sweatshirts.

During Flex and lunch, the Student Council ran relay races throughout the day. Juniors jumped at the opportunity to win $10 in push coin. Junior Kate Ginn ran an adventurous and competitive relay race during junior flex and it was very entertaining to view and cheer on fellow classmates. 

Great participation from all grades made great efforts to keep the spirit high and running for this year’s spring athletics and much needed spring break.

I’m not sure how much of a success we can constitute Thursday’s neon day. While some students were decked out head to toe in neon others were seen sporting none.

Though the theme may not have been a success dodgeball definitely was. Multiple students made their way down to the gym during flex fighting for a spot to watch the games commence. Game after game, ball after ball students were waiting to see who would hold against the shots.