After over 16 months with little to no students in the building, John Champe High School has finally returned to a version of normalcy with 5 day weeks, full classes, and complete athletic seasons. No more asynchronous Mondays, learning labs, or expedited sports in sight, and for many students in our school, it feels weird to be back to our regular lives. 

Before the pandemic hit and everything was shut down, Champe was highly regarded for its constant display of school spirit, whether it was in the student sections at various sporting events or in the hallways on gameday, with people decked out from head to toe ready to support their team that night. The Knights had school spirit flowing through them, until suddenly, all of that went away when we were quarantined in our homes for months. Our seniors graduated quietly, barely getting to experience the traditions they had waited 4 years to perform, an entire school year online passed and the school that was once bursting with joy was a ghost town. Now that we are back and ready to revive the excitement in our Champe community, what is being done to allow for the regrowth of our spirit? Luckily for us, we have multiple groups stepping in to help.

Champe Chaos, a currently student-led organization within the school, is working hard to bring back the spirit of the Knights through lively student sections, engagement on social media and increasing involvement in spirit activities. You may find members of Champe Chaos out in the halls, decked out in themed attire on game day, and starting chants in the student sections at various sporting events, joyfully supporting our Knights on the field and off. Champe Chaos also keeps an active Instagram page, consistently posting updates on game themes and related events. 

“Champe Chaos has evolved into a great source of spirit over the years”, senior Genevieve Butler said. “It’s exciting to see all the progress they have made.” 

Another group making large efforts to keep the Knights lively and active throughout the year is Champe SCA. SCA plans many big events all year long, such as Homecoming and football tailgates, as well as deciding game themes and spirit weeks. Champe SCA works hard year-round to ensure that everyone in the Champe community is thriving and that the morale is sky high.

 “We are all so excited to be back in person”, Knights sophomore mascot Danny Hillard said, “and we are ready to support our knights this year.” 

The John Champe Cheerleaders are also a great source of excitement for the Champe community. The cheerleaders do more than just cheering on our football team at games, including doing things like welcoming students into school on the first day, making appearances at band competitions, and our varsity competitive cheerleaders spreading the word of the Knights at their competitions. The Knights cheerleaders are an enthusiastic group of people ready to yell it loud and proud that Champe is the place to be.

 “I love our school”, Genevieve Butler, senior Knights cheerleader said, “and the cheerleaders are working hard to raise morale here at Champe.”

While we have many ways to get involved here and are only growing, our school spirit still consistently falls short.

“School spirit for the juniors is pretty low,” junior Zach Suh, varsity swimmer said. “We lost a huge chunk of our class to Independence and Lightridge, and we were online sophomore year and our freshman year was at Willard, so just like the freshman and sophomores were getting used to high school.” 

The senior class is pulling lots of weight for the rest of the classes in keeping up with events, school spirit, and the general Champe community. Once they leave next year, the underclassmen will need to step up in order to keep this morale afloat. This may be a difficult process for some, but underclassmen are slowly adjusting and getting more involved at Champe for hopefully a brighter future than how it is looking to some right now. 

“I’m excited to see what happens in the next years with school spirit.” Sophomore Danny Hillard said. “Champe is a great place and I’m confident we can keep the spirit going.”

All in all, things are looking up for our John Champe Knights. With multiple organizations ready to help bring back the school spirit and Champe pride we once had, we have a fighting chance at getting our school back to where it was.  

“We have great school spirit at Champe,” junior Zach Suh said. “We just need the underclassmen to participate more.”