These past few years have been, without a doubt, rocky. The world shut down, and inescapably, people did, too.

One of the main things about the school year last year that students collectively agree upon is the lack of enthusiasm. There weren’t any pep assemblies, class meetings, and most importantly: spirit.

The history at Rogers High School is undeniably rich. One of the most special things about this school is the bundling avalanche of spirit. Kris Cosme, a biology teacher and the leader of Rambassadors who has been involved with Rogers for about twenty-nine years, describes Rogers as, “It just feels like home. When you talk about Ram pride – Ram spirit – I’m bleeding blue.”

But how does the student body feel about the spirit? There is not a single student at this school who has had the chance to experience a full, restriction-free year at Rogers. Tycho Stephenson, Rogers’s jazz club leader and senior, recalls the spirit and energy at Rogers last year as “kind of mid, to be honest.”

“Once we were back in school, it was definitely pretty nerve-wracking seeing people again just because it kind of turned me into an introvert during online [school],” Tycho says.

This can be said for many people, as the absence of pep sort of bled into the start of the following 2022-2023 school year.

Cosme explains, “Our first pep assembly was shocking. Normally pep assemblies, kids come in, they’re totally having a good time, WOO, chatting it up… Kids came into that [first 2022-2023] pep assembly super serious as a student body.”

Being stuck in a pandemic has totaled many social lives, and many people have forgotten how it feels to be care-free around their peers. So, starting with the first year back at Rogers was reasonably terrifying. But that doesn’t mean Rogers can’t revive the great foundation that it used to have.

The cheer team has some ideas for how to boost spirit at Rogers. “We’re trying to incorporate more crowd involvement cheers. And we have simplified our cheers to make it easier for the students to join in,” Rogers cheer coach for 7-8 years, Megan DuCette said.

The level of crowd engagement from the Homecoming assembly was a remarkable upgrade from the last. Staff and students were granted with equal opportunities to have fun, and it was clear that most of the crowd used that opportunity. Looking around, you’d find high-spirited smiles as the students cheered on the relay participants.

The band program at Rogers is also working exceptionally hard. Stephen Pickard, the band teacher at Rogers, has been encouraging and pushing the bands to bring the spirit, in which their efforts can be easily identified from recent pep assemblies and football games.

“The energy seems to be there as far as you know, kids wanting to be involved and really trying to participate in things,” DuCette said. “In a sense of the ‘spirit of wanting to bring back the spirit,’ I think for sure it’s totally there and kids are wanting to be part of the culture. And as we move forward together back to normal, I think it’s really going to continue to grow.”

Cosme: “I don’t think spirit ever dies. You’re always going to have the excited people that wanna keep things going or start something new. I mean, that’s just the way it is.”

Despite everything that’s been thrown at everyone in these past couple years, it’s not completely unrealistic to assume that this year, Rogers will run in the same way it always has. At Rogers, building a legacy has always depended on the efforts brought on by students and staff, rather than the fluidity of the year.