Spirit Week, one of the most beloved Pace traditions, has been around for decades, but its evolution from a small cheer-sponsored event into a week-long focus by admin and students alike has taken over 50 years. 1975 is the first record of Spirit Week, initially sponsored by Pep Club. Spirit Week began as a way to celebrate the Pace community and basketball teams as a stand-in for homecoming. Originally, Spirit Week included themed days to dress up and even a day to decorate the halls. Though photographed and celebrated throughout the 80s, Spirit Week was not a solidified tradition until 1990. Even as a less solidified event in the 70s and 80s, the student-led traditions of decorating the halls and dressing up would lead to our beloved tradition today. “Spirit Week was never a week long”, said student council head from the 1980s, Ms. Smith. Instead, the celebration, although still called Spirit Week, was shortened into a few days, where they attended normal classes throughout the week. Sadly, students during this period did not get the opportunity for a sleepover on campus, and they missed out on very entertaining dances, but the celebration of Pace’s community that they began has continued on.
The 1990s and 2000s marked the beginning of true Pace Academy Spirit Week. Not only was it a fun event, but nowbecome a full-fledged tradition. With competitive spirits between grades and the urge to outdo last year’s seniors, Spirit Week started to transform into what students see today. From dances and designing hallways to huge student participation, Spirit Week in the 2000s was almost exactly like today. However, the 1990s marked the last years of Spirit Week in Boyd Gym, as in the early 2000s, the Inman Center was built and started to host the performances. However, with all of the benefits of Spirit Week during this time, arguably one of the worst downsides was that exams occurred the week students returned from Winter Break, and Spirit Week was the second week back. Since students used winter break to study, spirit week became an extra break for students. Luckily for current students, Head of School Mr. Assaf changed this when he became headmaster, and now we have both Winter Break and Spirit Week! Throughout the many changes Spirit Week has gone through, one consistency has been the student leadership and passion behind it every year. “It is one of the few things that is entirely student-run and student-owned,” said Class of ‘06 Graduate Ben Ewing. The student participation at this time also reached an all-time high as the winner of Spirit Week was determined by many factors, not just the dances. “We were also judged on whether we showed up to the basketball game and the practices [for Spirit Week],” said Class of ‘00 Graduate Caitlin Jones. While seniors still won practically every year, the incentive for participation helped cement Spirit Week as an annual Pace tradition.
By the 2010s, Spirit Week had earned its place in Pace history, allowing for a more similar Spirit Week that the Pace community knows today to take place. However, the biggest difference was the decorations that took over the entire upper school building. The old high school was a ranch-style building that was covered in decorations from head to toe, so much so that Mrs. Wilhelmsen recalls Lower school students walking over to go on mini tours of the building. To start the new decade of the 2010s, class dean Magistra Kann recalls the night of the Senior sleep-in. “During the night, the class of 2010 decorated the walk between the Upper School and Inman with old Christmas trees to make the Enchanted forest (for a Beauty and the Beast theme), but then the forecast changed overnight, leaving the Seniors with a foot of snow by morning. Pace wasn’t able to hold school on Friday, and in fact, the seniors were trapped on campus until noon on Friday due to the conditions of the road.” Mrs. Kann then went on to remember that the whole experience shows how “Spirit Week makes memories and builds skills that are difficult to acquire in a regular classroom”. The new building, constructed around 2014, was definitely the biggest change during the 2010s to Spirit Week decorations, limiting how complex and wide the decorations could be. Smaller changes came in the 2020s, such as the addition of the Waffle House truck during the sleep-in, practices not being held at people’s houses anymore, and, of course, navigating Spirit Week with the pandemic. During this time, beloved minimesters were added; they started by replacing a few classes to eventually replace the entire day as students saw this year. These minimesters allow students to practice and learn skills, while also taking off any stress, so all the focus is on perfecting the Friday-afternoon dance. The closer decades definitely begin to resemble the Spirit Week students’ experience today.
This year, Spirit Week saw some changes of its own, the most noticeable being that all the practices were held on Pace Campus. “I really liked how every practice was on campus this year,” said junior Davis Berman, who was a lead in the afternoon Dance. Since the practices were on campus, more kids were able to participate in the week-long preparation for Friday afternoon. The Freshman’s theme was “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” which Ryan Parrilli thought was “pretty fun and a good team-building activity”. The Sophomores recreated “Star Wars,” and the Junior class acted out “Teen Beach Movie”, making a video and a morning dance for the school. The Seniors chose “Disney” as their theme, filming a video, making a morning dance, and doing their senior sleep-in on Thursday Night. A favorite part of that night was when “all the seniors gathered in the commons to watch the spirit week video at midnight,” said Student Body president, Harriet Blaha. 2026’s Spirit Week also took place during the new minimester schedule of four hour and half long classes. The new changes to Spirit Week this year seem modest in comparison to the humble beginnings of the first Spirit Week. One thing that has not changed over the course of this Pace tradition is the love for the week and the lasting memories it brings students and faculty.