In the past several years, the leading charge of school spirit has come through social media. Whether it has been posts, stories or boomerangs, social media is where news of spirit days, homecoming dances and sports schedules are shared with students. Several student and school run accounts contribute to this but the most influential is by far the K-9 account.
Run by six seniors, K-9 serves as the central hub for all things school spirit at WCHS. The Instagram account is filled with football theme announcements, promotions of games and events, photos of students in spirit and much more. The heart of the K-9 truly lies with the students currently managing it, with their work beginning at the end of the last school year when they first stepped into their roles.
“We all submitted a Google form showing we were interested in being K-9s,” WCHS senior and K-9 Annika Shauf said. “The K-9s from last year selected which of us would continue the legacy. I really like the idea of the account being passed down each year, with the juniors taking the place of seniors.”
The goal for K-9s at the beginning of each year is always the same: outdo the year before. Whatever the year before accomplished, there is always a way to top it as there can never be enough school spirit. Spirit is a unifying force bringing students together and at such a large school like WCHS, it is extremely valuable.
“We want to do everything we can to make this the best year yet,” WCHS senior and K-9 Sydney Barrett said. “Usually after football season, it is easy for spirit to die down as school gets more demanding and the seasons start to change. Keeping spirit high and consistent throughout the year is definitely a priority for us.”
Another change the 2025 K-9s hope to implement is the idea of inclusivity, promoting all sports regardless of popularity. While football usually draws the largest crowds, there are so many other sports that are equally as important that the K-9s hope to focus on.
“Football is always going to be the most popular sport,” Shauf said. “But I really want us to do our best to include other sports. If we can promote other sports and get students involved, they can be just as successful and fun as football games.”
The reason behind the success of K-9 is the student involvement. Regardless of grade, if a student is participating in school events and spirit, they can be featured on the account. Every Friday, during football season, there is a theme for the school day and the game that night. At both the game and school, the K-9s go around trying to get as many photos of students in spirit as they can.
“I love getting to take pictures of students for Instagram,” Shauf said. “I think it makes it more fun to dress up knowing that the effort is going to be documented and posted for everyone to see. Obviously, you don’t have to pose for pictures if you don’t want to but students are usually pretty excited about being featured. It’s a good way to get all grade levels involved too because something as simple as wearing a certain color to school makes the student a bigger part of the school and community.”
K-9 is really all about encouraging students to be as spirited as possible, participate in school activities, attend sports games and be prideful in the WCHS community that they belong to.
“We really want to show how fun being spirited can be,” Barrett said. “It’s easy for high school kids to think of school spirit as ‘lame’ or ‘embarrassing’ and sit out but it is truly so much more fun to be a part of it. Us posting and making events and dress up days look exciting is all to just as many students involved as possible.”
A few weeks into this school year, K-9 has already accomplished many of their goals, aiming towards making this year the best that it can be. Football games and other fall sports have seen incredible turnouts, with students seeming to be more involved than ever.
“I’m extremely happy about how this year has gone so far,” Shauf said. “I think we’ve done a really good job of being active on the account and spreading as much spirit as we possibly can. Students from every grade show up to school decked out in spirit and leading that charge has been amazing. It’s been such a fun year and I’m so excited to see what else we do and how we can keep up this energy into the winter and spring sport seasons.”
