After a nail-biting game of Balloon Pop on the fourth day of Spirit Week, Communications High School (CHS) students of all grades spared no effort in trying to win the coveted Spirit Week trophy. With the seniors and sophomores only 9 points apart, and the juniors trailing behind by 5 points, it was anybody’s game on Friday, March 22, the final day of Spring Spirit Week.
The last daily theme was Dynamic Duo, in which the students of CHS dressed in anything from a couch and a potato pair to twinning grandmothers.
While each class checked in with the Student Government Association (SGA) for their respective points, tensions began to rise as the leaderboard had been tight the whole week. At the beginning of the day, the seniors led with 214 points, followed by the sophomores in second with 205 points, the juniors in third with 200 points and the freshmen in fourth with 148 points.
Many students expressed their anxiety as the day progressed, like junior Diana Xiao of Marlboro who wasn’t sure how the day would play out.
“I was super nervous during the days leading up to lip sync because I had a feeling that [it] would be the event determining the winner,” Xiao said. “I tried my best to overlook my nervousness on the day of, so I could do my best.”
Before the battle of the dances, each grade flooded to the cafeteria to complete the daily scavenger hunt. Items included a desktop calendar, three clementines, five rolls of correction tape and a CHS alumni magnet, among others. With some grades less than 10 points apart, winning the scavenger hunt would be a huge help to the overall score.
After frantically searching for their assigned items, the juniors clinched first place, donating their items to the freshmen to secure their second place victory. After these, the sophomores and the seniors followed, respectively.
At the end of the event, students reported to their fourth period classes before regrouping with the rest of their respective grades to practice their choreography and perfect their dance moves to prepare for the ultimate CHS showdown: Lip Sync.
After drawing from a hat, the sophomores led the Lip Sync performances with a “Sophomore Central” performance. Showcased through the lens of a radio show, students displayed their best moves to smash hits such as “Wannabe” from the Spice Girls and “No Scrubs” from TLC.
The seniors followed with a “Trip Down Memory Lane” performance, which highlighted all of the key moments in their high school lives at CHS. As SGA President Justin Longo of Middletown partnered with Luke Bigley of Wall to drive a motorized toy car across the cafeteria, students lip-synced to tunes such as “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars and “Shut Up and Drive” by Rihanna.
As one of the seniors driving through memory lane, Kaitlin Brice of Wall was grateful for one final chance to show her moves with her classmates before graduating.
“Performing in our last lip sync was so nostalgic and fun,” Brice said. “This spirit week was [so] much fun and was a great way to make great memories to close out high school.”
The juniors took the stage in a bracing “Junior Jailbreak” performance, including tracks such as “Cell Block Tango” from the movie “Chicago” and “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus. In a narrative of a jailbreak, Diana Xiao of Marlboro stole the Spirit Week trophy with the help of her two henchmen Ahren Gaikwad of Howell and Nolan O’Keefe of Monmouth Beach.
Capping off the dances was the freshmen’s rendition of “The Barbie Movie.” Adorned in various shades of pink, students took their own spin on songs from the summer blockbuster, such as “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling and “Barbie World” by Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj. Sofie Grodman of Sea Bright noted the challenge of facing more experienced opponents in Lip Sync.
“I was definitely a little nervous since we haven’t done anything like that before,” Grodman said. “We knew that all the other grades had the experience but we still tried to be as optimistic as possible, when we finished performing we were really proud of ourselves. Even though we knew we weren’t the best, we tried our best.”
After all of the performances took place, the panel of five judges convened to choose the Spring Spirit Week winner. Amidst cheers and hugs, CHS students and staff gathered around the cafeteria, and the winners were announced from fourth to first.
The Class of 2025 jailbirds flew to the top, winning their fourth Spirit Week, the most any CHS class has ever won consecutively. The seniors, sophomores and freshmen followed respectively in both the Lip Sync and overall Spirit Week results.
While the sophomores didn’t win, their class president Kyla Kidorf of Holmdel was proud of her grade’s efforts to collaborate and bring their best dancing game to the stage.
“We were able to pick up our participation from the beginning of the week, and the same goes for the Lip Sync,” Kidorf said. “I definitely think we were more united and communicative this Spirit Week as opposed to last ones which was awesome.”
Junior and co-class president Isabella Remolina of Shrewsbury expressed her joy after the juniors’ win.
“I was stunned really but I was excited and really proud of our class for how hard they worked this week and the weeks leading up to this one,” Remolina said. “I’m happy.”
