Spirit is Alive and Well in the Halls of Hunter

 

       People say school spirit is a thing of the past.  I would have to argue this perception with anyone that would say this about Hunter Middle School. Granted, when you walk through the halls at Hunter you may overlook the spirit of the school but that is because there is also pride and respect for the education of others that is foremost in our building.  However, if you had been here between September 27^th and October 4^th you would have experienced school spirit at it’s finest.

            Hunter Middle School’s spirit is the optimism and enthusiasm of our students that is modeled and encouraged by our faculty and staff while also being supported by our community of dedicated parents.  Special recognition should be acknowledged for the planning and efforts of our student council leadership team and their sponsors for creating such a memorable middle school experience.  This contagious spirit began with our student council and quickly spread to over 75% of our student body, our cafeteria workers, our office staff, our administration, and our faculty. 

            Our faculty values educational time greatly but also realizes a need for opportunities that will create an enjoyable and even a fun environment fostering relationships between students, parents, and their teachers.  This “Spirit Week” provided our students the chance to grow in maturity and responsibility while dealing with nonacademic experiences.

            The Hunter Student Council chose some great themes for the week with “Hillbilly or Hippie” day starting us off, followed by “Cowboy or Camo.” Day.  Friday saw the creativity come out in our diverse population with “Tacky/Twin” day.  The Monday blahs were eased by our “PJ / Sleepers or Sweats” day and Tuesday had the largest participation with “Class Colors / Logo” day.

            Our cross-country team started us off on the 27^th of September with a first place finish by our boys in the HCAC Championship race and a second place finish by our girl’s team.  The success continued on September 28^th with a great showing in the Special Olympics Bowling Event.  Our CDC class had girls place 1^st through 4^th and our boys placed 2^nd through 4^th.  On October 3^rd our student body acknowledged our teams while also participating in a pep rally sponsored by our outstanding cheerleaders.  The Hunter Majorette’s dazzled the crowd with their performance and the 6^th grade showed what it was all about, winning the school “spirit yell” and retaining the school “spirit stick”.  On the evening of the 3^rd, our girl’s softball team fell one run shy of the Championship for a strong second place finish.                                                                 The excitement ended with a great day of events on October 4^th.  The 7^th grade not only won the Spirit Links competition but also won the Spirit Sheet competition to become the overall winner of the 2005 “Spirit Week”.  Students, parents, and faculty arrived early at Ooltewah High School to decorate for a most memorable evening witnessed by an estimated 2000 spectators and fans.  Spirit links and sheets draped the visitor’s side of the field that eventually filled with screaming, cheering Hawk supporters and students.  The night started with some broken dreams but character displayed as our Junior Varsity football team took it’s first loss of the year in the JV Championship.  Our varsity came back and made the week a memorable one coming from behind twice to pull out the HCAC Championship.  Hunter students both present and past showed their pride as they poured out onto the field after the victory, lining up to greet the players and coaches after the end-of-game hand shakes with the opposing Ooltewah Owls.  They participated in some cheers, witnessed love, appreciation, respect and an exuberance of excitement shown by the coaches toward our players, then joining in with a season ending prayer.  Many stuck around to help with cleanup and to visit with friends from our rival school.

            The sportsmanship displayed by both teams would make any administrator proud and was just another important part of this special week.  These experiences lived, will be remembered for a long time if not for a lifetime and would not have been possible without middle school athletics.

                                                                                    Hunter Middle Administration