Opinions Differ on Depth of Athenian’s School Spirit

“One thing I'm not sure of is, are people, like, super-proud of being at Athenian,” said Dean of Student Life Chris Crisolo.

This sentiment is not held by Chris alone; some students show their spirit by wearing Athenian clothes or participating in school events, while others are less likely to attend school events.

“It's just we aren't really into spirit. We're a fairly small school that isn't necessarily a sporty school, like De La Salle or any of the other, more sportier schools, so I feel like the school's more academic-based and academic-focused, so school spirit isn't our strong suit.” said 10th grader Patrick Rafferty-Fuentes.

Chris said, “I think some of the challenges that happen end up being, [people] have so many activities after school or they just really focus on academics.”

Some athletic events struggle to attract spectators, such as cross country.

Patrick said, “Oh, It's horrible. No one goes. Except for one meet last year where they provided a van to the meet. I mean, it was more than zero. So it was like five to seven people that came, but still not really that many people that came.”

When asked about the quality of the Nest Night atmosphere, Frosh-Soph Basketball player Owen Hughes said, “On Nest Night, honestly, the CPS bench was pretty loud, like almost as loud as us, so that was a little disappointing.”

This may vary by sport, however. For the NCS Division 5 Basketball Championship, almost 100 Athenian Students attended an away game at The Head-Royce School, while also mostly wearing black-colored clothing, as requested by student leaders.

Many students mentioned the popularity of wearing Athenian merchandise on campus. However, some students question the quality and availability of such items.

“They could give every athlete some sort of hoodie or sweatpants to kind of advertise the school a little more instead of having us have to pay for everything. Monte Vista gets sportswear for free, as long as they're an athlete. Whereas here you have to pay for everything.” said Patrick, “I'm not going to pay for something that's just going to be another pair of sweatpants that I might not wear necessarily all the time, but if it comes free then I might wear it more or be more open to having it.”

But Zach Holt, the Assistant Athletic Director, said that the athletics program only receives $250,000 in funding every year, which is spent on insurance, equipment, and various other fees.

“If we gave, say, a t-shirt to every athlete, that's around 350 shirts which cost around $10 each, which in total is $3,500, and with shipping and other fees that could easily go up into the thousands of dollars,” said Zach.

Patrick, who is also a member of the Student Athletic Committee, details their role in student life: “In terms of athletics, we plan events, we promote events, we send out surveys to improve athletics if that's needed. The main thing we do is Nest Nights, which is just planning all that because we have to get the taco trucks, we have to get the designs, we have to set everything up, we have to make sure we have people there to actually work them. I feel like that's the biggest thing we do.”

Patrick said that most Athenians are fairly interested in Nest Nights, “because it's the only sports-centered event we have here. It's how most people watch their sports other than just random miscellaneous games right now. So I feel like there's a lot of interest in Nest Nights.”

“I do think that our spirit has improved with the growth of the school in the nine years I have been here,” said Zach. “Last year we hit a record number with people in athletics, but that’s not the only way spirit is represented. I’m sure there was growth with people in say, theater and robotics”

Many found that Athenian seems to be at a crossroads regarding spirit, where the school has grown beyond the dynamics of a “small” school but cannot be considered a “big” school.

“I think we have room to grow in our school spirit and in school culture,” said Chris.