by: Hayley Strahs and Dylan Wadhwa

Local Editor and Editor-in-Chief

Los Gatos High School students showed their Wildcat pride during Fall Spirit Week, held Oct. 7–10, concluding with the annual Homecoming football game and dance. Leadership and Rally commissions organized the weeklong event that featured themed dress-up days, decorated hallways, lunchtime competitions, and an all-school rally on Friday.

Each semester, LGHS hosts a spirit week centered around a unique theme, this year’s theme being Continents Around the Globe. Over the preceding weekend, leadership students from every grade level spent hours decorating the main hallway and transforming campus corridors into colorful displays of creativity and effort. Senior and ASB Outreach Alexis Dorn explained that her favorite part of the setup was “working with [friends] and seeing the finished product before everyone else.” Throughout the week, Leadership students also hosted daily lunchtime activities in the quad designed to earn class spirit points.

The dress-up day lineup began on Tuesday with Greek vs. Greek Life. Some students arrived on campus wearing togas, fraternity letters, and gold crowns. The next day prompted an unusual mix of camouflage and bright pink outfits for the Army vs. Barbie theme, while Thursday’s Adam Sandler Day had hundreds of students dressed in oversized shirts and basketball shorts inspired by his iconic look. While sophomore Jonah Cohen and his friends dressed up throughout the week, his favorite theme was Adam Sandler Day because “you could dress up comfy, but it was also funny because Adam Sandler has really good movies and he’s really funny.”

The festivities culminated on Friday with Class Color Day and the Fall Spirit Rally. Each class wore its assigned color: green for freshmen, blue for sophomores, orange for juniors, and black for seniors. Reflecting on the schoolwide turnout at the rally, Cohen remarked, “It was super cool to see everyone showing their spirit. I think it shows how spirited we are at Los Gatos.” During the rally, students competed in tense class-versus-class leadership games, and staff members including Tyler McGlashan, Sarah Campbell, and Joseph Tierney joined in for a fan-favorite soccer game that drew some of the day’s loudest cheers. Between games, the event featured performances by senior Isabella Burlinson, the LGHS Cheer and Dance teams, and Brass Chaos. 

The week’s excitement carried directly into Homecoming Weekend, consisting of a Friday night football game on Oct. 10 and the Saturday night Homecoming Dance on Oct. 11. This year’s dance adopted a Tangled theme, with Leadership students transforming the front lawn into a glowing fairy-tale setting with vines, lanterns, and sparkling lights. Students also voted for the 2025 Homecoming Court, crowning seniors Hayden Benjamin and Marina Jackson as this year’s Homecoming royalty. Recalling the moment she won, Jackson remarked, “I jumped. I was just so excited.”

With this year’s Homecoming festivities over, the Leadership team is already planning next semester’s Spring Spirit Week and upcoming school dances. For now, the energy of Homecoming Weekend continues to echo across campus as a reminder of the vibrant Wildcat spirit.