#1StudentNWI: Fall Brings a Flood of Activity to Andrean High School

#1StudentNWI: Fall Brings a Flood of Activity to Andrean High School

Students Show School Spirit for Homecoming
Fall is always a busy time at Andrean High School. There are always events: sports games, academic team competitions, the fall play, etc. One of the most iconic and important fall events, though, is homecoming.

This year's homecoming dance took place on September 24; however, the entire Andrean community partook in a myriad of events leading up to this magical evening.

The first of these events was Spirit Week. Every day of the school week, students were able to dress differently according to the theme. Monday's theme was lounge wear, where students wore comfortable clothing such as sweatpants and t-shirts. Tuesday was career/hero day, for which students either dressed up like their favorite teacher or as their dream job. Wednesday was decades day. Every class dressed as a different decade. Thursday was Andrean wear, and the seniors had the privilege of being able to dress up. For Friday, the theme was country day, so students dressed as various countries.

These themes demonstrated the school spirit that builds during this week. Throughout the halls, one could find students complimenting each other on their outfits: the wackier, the better. Andrean students are used to seeing each other in plaid shirts or khaki pants, so this opportunity bonds the students together in a way that you would not really expect.

On Wednesday, September 21, the homecoming parade took place. Andrean's clubs and organizations designed floats that marched down the street one after another. Some of the floats were for sports, theater, and, of course, the homecoming court.

This year's homecoming court featured ten seniors who, per tradition, broke into five couples to perform skits at the homecoming pep rally. This year's skits included a dance-off between two teachers, Mr. Knazur and Mr. Arcella, and seniors Tessa Wojkovich and Patrick Reardon, inspired by the 2004 film White Chicks. Wojkovich and Reardon, sporting platinum blonde wigs and denim jackets, performed dance stunts that incited loud cheers from the amused student body.

Andrean-1Student-October-2016_02 Another skit had senior Logan Bosak riding in on a tricycle to the sound of "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire, only to be caught and detained by “naughty cop” Freddy Meccia. There was a sumo wrestling match between Winston Carey and Taylor McLaurin, a hip-hop and ballet dance routine by Kiera Markham and Tarik Dixon, and a rendition of High School Musical's "Bop to the Top" with an unconventional role reversal: Maddie Tomson played the part of Ryan Evans and Jeff Tarala the part of Sharpay, blue dress and all.

The homecoming game was the beginning of the end of homecoming week. Andrean alumni flocked to the football game to see Freddy Meccia and Logan Bosak crowned as the 2016 homecoming king and queen.

“I was really excited and happy,” Bosak said about her win. “It was fun being with such a great group of people.”

The next night was the homecoming dance. Andrean students embraced the opposite of Monday's lounge wear as they donned fancy dresses or nice suits and danced the night away.

Andrean-1Student-October-2016_03Can You Spell Fifty-Niner?
Andrean is well-known for its sports, but another important facet of this school is its successful academic teams. One of these academic teams, academic spell bowl, won the state championship last year. With such big shoes to fill, this year's team got an early start with tryouts taking place the second week of school. There were a lot of spots to fill because the team lost a lot of valuable players who graduated last June. Most of these available spots were filled by juniors who will hopefully gain experience this year and lead the team to further victories next year.

As for this year, the spell bowl team is off to a promising start. Their first competition was the invitational. Usually the invitational is held at Merrillville High School, but Andrean actually hosted it this year. Ten schools gathered in Andrean's cafeteria after school on October 3 to compete for the first time of the 2016 season. The invitational is more of a practice meet than anything else, because it is the regional meet on November 2 that qualifies teams for the state competition. However, the results from the invitational are often a good indicator of how the rest of the season will go.

If that is a legitimate method of prognostication, then the future bodes well for this year's spell bowl team. Out of the ten schools present at the invitational on Monday, Andrean won first place with a total score of 57. One speller won the second ribbon of the night with a perfect score of 9 in the tenth and final round.

Typically, Andrean does not do this well at invitationals, so spell bowl coach Mary Kopil is very pleased.

"We didn't have [anywhere] near the low scores we have had in the past at our invitational," she said. "It makes me encouraged for the future."

Miss Kopil is not the only one hopeful for future competitions. Members of the team are looking forward to regionals, but their ultimate goal is another state championship.

“I know we need to improve if we want to win state again,” junior team member Elizabeth Cooley said. “I think we have a lot of room for improvement though, especially since we haven’t even gone through the whole spelling list during practice yet.” Cooley is new to the team this year, but she demonstrates the optimistic and dedicated spirit the team embodies.

“One thing at a time,” Kopil reminds students. Their immediate goal is to succeed at the regional competition that is scheduled to take place on November 2.