During the week of October 17th, Struthers High School students participated in Spirit Week in preparation for the big game versus the Poland Bulldogs.

The themes were as follows: “Pajama Day” for Monday, “Tropical Tourist Day” for Tuesday, “Grill Dads Versus Soccer Moms” for Wednesday, “Throwback Thursday” and “Wildcat Blackout” for Friday. A pep rally was hosted on Friday as well.

Starting the week off strong, many students participated in pajama day, wearing their most comfortable pajamas.

Brianna Day, a freshman, was super excited to get to wear her pajamas and get to dress down for the day, as well as dress up for the rest of the week.

“Spirit week is a nice thing because it gives everyone a chance to express themselves. I’m glad that we waited until after homecoming because everyone was already stressed enough because of it. I’m excited to keep dressing up for the rest of the week,” says Day.

Due to the weather, some did not participate in “Tropical Tourist” Tuesday. It was stormy and chilly, and just overall a bad day for weather. Fortunately, many students didn’t let the weather rain on their fun!

Freshman Ryan Gulu and Junior Penelope Tusin still went all out, despite the not-so-tropical weather.

“I dressed up today because it’s spirit week, and I’m going to use that to my advantage and have fun in high school,” says Gulu.

“You only live once, so might as well do it. I like this theme, and it’s cute,” says Tusin.

Wednesday brought another highly anticipated theme for the week, which was ‘Grill Dads vs. Soccer Moms’. The basic idea of the theme was to either dress like a dad cooking something on a grill, or a very busy and stereotypical mom, A.K.A. a soccer mom.

Nick Johnson, a sophomore, took being a grill dad for the day very seriously. Johnson wore an apron, a button up shirt, khaki shorts, a hat, watch and white socks with black tennis shoes. On the other hand, Bryona Colyar, a senior, not only dressed the part but acted it out too. Colyar wore skinny jeans, sunglasses, her senior band jacket and a pin of her friend in her marching band uniform.

“I chose to dress up as a grill dad because I had the most stuff for it. I regret not really participating a lot last year, so I dressed up today and the other days of this week. If anyone inspired me to dress up, it’d be Robert, who graduated last year, because he’d always go all out. I think I captured the essence of a grill dad because of the pun on my apron that says ‘Hi Hungry, I’m Dad’,” says Johnson.

“Most of the things in my wardrobe fit the soccer mom stereotype, so I went with that. I’d like to think I captured the essence of a soccer mom, but there could’ve been more but I didn’t have it,” says Colyar.

Thursday was another highly-anticipated day, which was ‘Throwback Thursday’. With the broadness of the theme, there were a wide variety of outfits, all which fit the same theme. On Thursday night, the school also held a bonfire in anticipation of a fair chance against Poland.

Sadie Jones, a sophomore, went with a more unique route, and quite literally dressed as Jesus.

“I’m from B.C, and I’m Jesus Christ. This theme is pretty good, and I went a way people probably wouldn’t expect,” says Jones.

The final day of spirit week was Friday, which was “Blackout Day.” The pep rally hyped everyone up for the big rival game later that night. “Blackout” was a huge success, with most students wearing black.

Senior and Student Council President Connor Pavliko explained some of the ‘behind the scenes’ of the pep rally.

“This specific pep rally was all about the seniors, because it’s senior recognition, our rival game and senior night all at once. Every single senior who plays a sport gets to have their moment, and walk out and wave at all the people in the stands. It’s like a ‘you made it’ moment,” said Pavliko.

All of the participation and preparation definitely paid off, as the Wildcats won 35-7 against the Bulldogs.