For the final week of October, students enjoy homecoming, pep rallies, the Kinkaid video and the final football game of the year. These events are known as “Spirit Week,” helping relieve the stress that comes with the October season. Yet many students are not familiar with the faces behind these events. 

Every year, the final week of October is celebrated with a series of free-dress days.

This year, Monday kicked off the week with the annual Homecoming dance and “Dress like Kinkaid” Spirit Day for seniors, a coveted tradition at the School. While students in Kinkaid dress up like “nerds” to imitate the Mavs, seniors don Kinkaid uniforms, feather boas, tiaras and fur jackets.

“It’s rivalry week, but you can still build connections with people from Kinkaid,” Spirit Club captain Adair Patterson said. “I had five people who I don’t really know text me and ask if they could wear my school uniform for a dress like St. John’s Day.”

After a day off for parent-teacher conferences on Tuesday, students turn “invisible” in camouflage on Wednesday. 

Next, Thursday marks the start of the homestretch before the big game. Students wear their fairytale Homecoming-themed shirts to celebrate the Thursday pep rallies and don Halloween costumes at night. 

The week ends with Kinkaid Day, where everyone decks out in red-and-black spirit dress at both school and Rice stadium. 

Each year, on the weekend before “Kinkaid Week” commences, seniors make their way to the campus to decorate.

This year, decorations included ivy garlands, a giant chalk castle painted in front of Flores, gold streamers on the tunnels and cut-out pictures of the football and cheer team.

In addition to representing the football and cheer team, students also use glass markers to decorate the windows, writing out the names of other athletes in fall sports.

“I love decorating every year,” Spirit Captain Adair Patterson said. “I liked doing it in the library with the glass markers. You draw fun things. And over the years, I’ve put in a lot of time to make it fun.”

Patterson, Emily Young and Tristan Faillace, the three Spirit Club captains, take charge in decorating the campus for Spirit Week while SAC prepares Homecoming.

At the beginning of the week, the Upper School celebrates Homecoming. The themed dance is unique to the School because it offers a more casual approach to the celebration, making many new students skeptical.

“It’s really fun because our Prom and Cotillion are very formal. So it’s good to also have a party or an event that’s more creative,” said junior Norah Simon.

To decide the Homecoming theme each year, Dean of Students Bailey Duncan sends out a form on the Infographic where students can vote for the theme. Some of this year’s contenders included “Under the Sea,” “Prehistoric” and “Rock and Roll.”

Last year, the theme was Barbie, in which every student donned pink outfits, and the campus was decorated in hot-pink.

This year, the most voted theme was fairytale.

Once the theme is set, the Student Affairs Council prepares several ideas through weekly meetings to showcase the theme. In the meantime, senior artists design prospective art for the image that will be shown on the back of student T-Shirts during the Thursday pep rallies.

Once a T-Shirt design is chosen, hundreds of T-Shirts are made to be distributed to students from grades K-12.

Homecoming takes place the Monday before parent teacher conferences. Each year, SAC members spend hours planning the details for the major event. Each prefect takes on one responsibility—including decorations, food, music and activities. 

Prefects Remy Phan and Kai Gomez were in charge of planning decorations. 

To add some spooky spirit, SAC hid dry ice in bowls to give the appearance of a cold drink or fog. As for the content of the drinks, there is the traditional SAC punch, a trademark item of the menu that students look forward to. However, no one really knows what it contains.

“We’re not allowed to talk about the ingredients,” head prefect Mark Doan said. 

Since the course of her time on SAC, Phan has made it a goal to involve herself and create several new activities. This year, she has helped lead dodgeball, an egg drop competition and several Name That Tune events. 

“I’ve also wanted there to be more fun activities,” she said.

Gomez, who helps lead social media, has also been pivotal in the success of SAC this year. To create a magical setting in the plaza and Great Lawn, Phan and Gomez bought golden rope to mimic Rapunzel’s hair, inflatable dragons and even fairy lights. 

“We were really nervous about putting up the lights,” Doan said. “No one has ever tried to do something like that before.” 

Doan has been a SAC member since his freshman year. 

“It’s always been a priority to be involved,” he said. “I love collaborating with my peers and occasionally coming up with my own projects too.” 

Along with decorations, the prefects on the food committee made it a goal to have a unique selection of food this year. They bought Canes, Chick-Fil-A, and even a chocolate fountain machine. Though the chocolate fountain machine quickly exploded, the other food choices were a success.

After the Upper School’s day off for parent teacher- conferences on Tuesday, school spirit is at its highest. With the final game of the season just around the corner, students make it their goal to showcase their Mav spirit.

On Thursday, all students represent the Mavericks at the all-school pep rally. During this pep rally, every student proudly displays their identical “beat Kinkaid” themed shirts as they cheer on their team.

Students enthusiastically watch Chidsey, the mascot, get captured by the Kinkaid falcon, until the varsity football players charge in to rescue Chidsey and save the day. All students, from kindergarteners to seniors, look forward to the excitement and cheer of this annual pep rally. They watch the stunts the cheerleaders perform in awe as they ignite Maverick spirit throughout the School.

“It is the only week where the entire school comes together for spirit instead of just the Upper School,” Young said.

To close off the thrilling week, Mavericks come together on Friday to support their team in taking down the Falcons at the annual SJS versus Kinkaid football game at Rice stadium.

The day starts off with students wandering the halls sporting their red-and-black outfits to show off St. John’s spirit. Students and faculty alike look forward to the excitement of the game.

Between the tailgate to the thrill of a touchdown, Homecoming week is a whirlwind of emotions and exhilaration from start to end.