For seniors, spirit week has always been the most exciting part of their last year at Woodland. However, it is more than just fun spirit themes and class hallway decorating competitions; it is all about winning the school’s golden shovel. Almost every single year at Woodland, seniors have won the golden shovel and the spirit week competition. Were this year’s seniors ready to take on this goal? 

Senior, Jenna Chicano, said she looked forward to spirit week as a senior.

“I know that as a senior, you embrace the actual spirit week more as you age up. So it’s definitely exciting to know that we had a chance this year,” said Chicano. 

This year’s spirit days were Monday November 20th which was Decades Day where the underclassmen dress as the 2000’s and the upperclassmen and staff dress as the 1980’s; Tuesday November 21st, which was the annual Color Wars where the freshmen dress in green, sophomore in yellow, juniors in blue, and seniors in red. 

Senior, Lana Poulin, said her favorite spirit day was Color Wars.

“Color Wars was fun and it was easy to figure out what to wear. The hallway was also really cute,” said Poulin. 

Color Wars also allows students to decorate their hallways which is always a popular event. This year, the seniors planned to decorate their hallway inspired by Chinese New Year and their graduating year of 2024 being the year of the dragon. 

Senior, Molly Sweet, loved the creativity of the theme this year. 

“The theme was pretty creative and it was really unique this year. I think that in the past years the seniors just used simple ideas like clowns and blood; I think we really stepped it up,” said Sweet.

Finally, on Wednesday November 22 the entire student body dressed in black and gold for spirit points. In addition, the senior’s final pep rally occurred which also decided whether or not they would win the golden shovel and they felt the pressure. 

“There is pressure to win because seniors win every year,” said Poulin.  “It kind of felt like we had to win.” 

Although there is always competition between juniors and seniors, this year the seniors did not let this pressure get to them and came out on top. After coming in first for participation for all three spirit days, plus winning the hallway decoration and banner competitions, and winning the Hungry Hungry Hawks pep rally game, the seniors won the spirit week class competition and golden shovel with a total of 400 points.