White out, black-out, camo-out, neon-out, pink-out, orange-out, blue-out, prep-out, jersey-out, luau-out—these are just a few of the themes that Spartan sport fans have participated in for games.
There is a process to deciding a theme influenced by the Hype Squad, Leadership, Admin, and the occasional twitter poll, and it isn’t always an easy decision.
When morning announcements come on and declare the theme, all tension is alleviated because the arguing and back and forth between hype squad and leadership are over until the next game comes around.
The process starts with the Hype Squad, a group chat consisting of a few seniors who are especially passionate about WS teams and swoon over home games and game themes.
The Hype squad offers an idea and occasionally put a poll on twitter to get the opinion of other students. Usually this is how the theme is decided, but on occasion leadership vetoes the idea and requests for another one. This recently happened when the “Gangsta out” was suggested by the Hype Squad. The faculty and Leadership opposed the idea and promptly vetoed it.
“It was not appropriate at all and definitely not okay,” said senior class officer, Katie Frost. Once they agree, the decision is spread throughout the school by word of mouth and on twitter but making everyone follow the theme is nearly impossible.
Many people just go with the flow when it comes to color outs at football and basketball games following the stated theme. But others want more involvement in the process seeing it as a school decision as opposed to giving that power to a select few.
“We could encourage the [Hype Squad] to be as inclusive as possible in order to make the process reach a wider range of students,” said Frost.
After all, the students travel to games and they endure the rain and cold and stuffy gyms right beside the hype squad.
“It would be nice if we got more of a say because we are the ones that make it look so cool in the stands,” sophomore Hannah Robertson said.