“Spirit Week is a time where you be yourself, be expressive, and most importantly let your creativity run wild for the maximum amount of enjoyment,” said English teacher Mr. Zawatski. This year, Mr. Zawatski went all out for each of the Spirit Week theme days. For the week of Homecoming, the high school students and teachers compete to see who wins the Spirit Stick. Every day is a different theme to follow chosen by the Student Council. Mr. Zawatski’s main goal was to make everyone smile and rebuild the culture of Spartan Pride. “It is also important to brighten the students, staff, and others day as to who lays eyes on my outlandish fashions.”
On Monday, October 16th, the theme was sports/teams. Mr. Zawatski dressed as the Purdue Boilermaker to represent Purdue University. When Mr. Zawatski was a student, he and his brother dressed for the Minnesota Vikings, but he wanted to change it up this year. Purdue University is where Mr. Zawatski went to college after graduating from WVW. He received a scholarship to swim for their Division I swimming program. “I wanted to educate others about many of the other amazing universities throughout the United States and most importantly outside of the valley.” The Purdue Boilermaker costume was a great start to this year’s Spirit Week!
On Tuesday, October 17th, students were prompted to twin with their teacher. Mr. Zawatski’s goal for this day was to see how many students in each class would twin with him. “The goal for me was to see how many kids I can get in my classes that wanted to be involved and twin with me via t-shirt and take our ‘class photo-op’ moment.” The class with the most students that participated was Mr. Zawatski’s period 7 Academic English 9 class. “By the end of the day I had an accumulation of about 31 students who volunteered to join in on the fun.” One of Mr. Zawatski’s students, Sarah Lotfy even painted on a beard and styled her hair to look just like him. “It was visually awesome,” stated Mr. Zawatski.
Wednesday, October 18th was Celebrity/Movie Character day. Mr. Zawatski went with Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark/Iron-man. Many students loved his outfit, including the glasses, chest piece, and glove. While Mr. Zawatski usually goes as the Red Power Ranger, he wanted to try something new this year. With Mr. Zawatski’s love for pop culture, he wanted to show the unique way people represent themselves in different fandoms. “I wanted to show everyone in this unique way how awesome an individual can dress while positively representing your fandom.”
On Thursday, October 19th, the theme was tie-dye. Many students and teachers wore their best tie-dye clothing. Mr. Zawatski wanted to wear every piece of tie-dye clothing possible, while keeping it in dress code. His goal was to be loud and “in your face.” “The mohawk was a total impulse purchase because in the previous year, I had a bob cut colorful wig. But this time I wanted to change up the hair style, so the mohawk was fitting for the loud and in your face approach tie-dye is supposed to be.” Mr. Zawatski felt good that the students and teachers enjoyed the craziness of his outfit.
The final day of Spirit Week. On Friday, October 20th it was the pep rally and Spartan Spirit Day. Mr. Zawatski wore his original cap and gown from his graduation. Compared to Miss Rodway’s Lady Sparta, Mr. Zawatski went for the more toned down “graduate” look. “This look is fitting because again, I am a graduate from this amazing school and was taught by some of the best teachers that are willing to help any student.” As an alumni of WVW, Mr. Zawatski showed off his Spartan pride as both a teacher and a former student.
Mr. Zawatski ended up winning the Spirit Stick at the 2023 pep rally. Overall, this year’s Spirit Week was a success! Many students wanted to get photos with Mr. Zawatski and wanted to join in on the fun.
