The noise was deafening as the student leapt backwards, penned in by a wall of people. All around him, people clapped and screamed his name while he caught his breath. A single pop rang out, and the crowd exploded with noise. He sighed with relief.

That was the chaos that sophomore Will Carragher of Middletown experienced during Balloon Pop, one of the five lunchtime competitions of the 2017 Spring Spirit Week. Each year, the SGA devotes two separate weeks to competition between the four classes.

Spirit Week started during CHS’s first year, in 2000. For the first few years, there was only Fall Spirit Week, which consisted of a theme each day without any competitions during lunchtime.

It wasn’t until 2009 that Spring Spirit Week was introduced by the SGA.  History teacher Sharon O’Keefe said numerous events were cancelled during the fall due to the swine flu outbreak. In an attempt to increase school spirit, the SGA created another Spirit Week in the spring with approval from principal James Gleason.

“It just seemed to make sense. We have two semesters, and there was this natural ability to have a second spirit week,” Gleason said.

The daily themes, such as Decades Day and Class Colors, were brought over from the Fall Spirit Week, but lunchtime competitions were added.

Through the years, a few events and themes have become tradition.

Halloween costumes have been a part of the festivities since the first Spirit Week, and all Fall spirit weeks have taken place during the week of Halloween.

Fall Spirit Week has always taken place during the week of Halloween, and costumes have been a part of the festivities since the first Spirit Week.

Other traditional events include Penny Wars, Balloon Pop, baking contests and Lip Sync.

“Lip Sync was in the very first Spring Spirit Week, so that’s been there ever since,” O’Keefe said.

She said the first two years of Lip Sync consisted of one or two people going up on stage alone. However, two years later, one class performed with nearly all of their members. It inspired the other groups to follow suit and eventually evolved into the full-scale productions that appeared in the 2017 Spirit Week.

Through it all, the students are always enthusiastic. Fitness teacher Ginny Clevenger has seen it all firsthand.

“It’s always been competitive. We don’t have sports teams here, so this is our only outlet for kids to get team-oriented,” Clevenger said.