The new school year began with activities booming with energy, sports matches starting, and clubs attracting students to join and organize future activities. Those involved students contain much school spirit. However, there are ample opportunities for other students to participate.

Many of these opportunities come from the clubs available at McNeil. These clubs can easily be found on the school website under Student Resources. Some clubs provide opportunities for community service for the school, such as Green Club which cleans up the school and the Memorial Garden. Other groups, including Art Club, Drama Club, Majestics and Sapphires, provide the opportunity to interact with other students and produce a unique feature for the school which Mavericks can be proud of.

Although some of clubs and organizations require members to attend events, participants find themselves enjoying their involvement. Those students then want to support the school in other ways. Uninvolved students sometimes do not understand the excitement generated by spirit events. However, this can easily change.

Freshman band member Kristen Inness described how during middle school she held little school spirit. Now that she is in high school, she decided to join band. Band requires members to participate in school activities ranging from pep rallies to football games.

Unfortunately, some students cannot participate in school events, teams, or clubs due to the amount of homework they receive throughout the week, jobs, or commitments at  home. These reasons result in students not caring much about events designed for them. The school should provide in-school events other than pep rallies so students can be involved if they cannot after hours.

Another opportunity is to participate in the dress up days which are designed to express pride for the school because participants dress the same but in their own unique way. Student Council began dress up days every Friday, so students can share their pride this way.

Another opportunity is to go to the carnival the school holds. The carnival includes booths from different clubs and organizations that provide food for purchase and games to play. Students are encouraged to bring their families to join the fun.

Students in favor of increasing school spirit suggest that McNeil should force students to join clubs or at least require students to go to the pep rallies. Going to pep rallies provides an alternate to clubs and teams, keeping students energized and letting them admire the efforts other students put into their activities.

Teachers and students find it disappointing and awkward to cheer for the school when some students create a negative aura concerning school spirit.

The myth of how it is not cool to be excited for upcoming events is created and no one wants to be the odd one out.

To combat the negativity, students should realize that their fellow classmates input a great amount of effort into their actions whether it be a competition, community service, or the arts to place pride in the school and the entire student body. These contributions are the ideals which make a student, even one not involved in extracurriculars, proud to be a Maverick.