People have mistaken homecoming Spartans Henry Hilton and Lukas Hembre for each other since sixth grade. Although they may not look as similar anymore, it’s clear that their connection makes them a great pair to represent the student body at homecoming.

The Spartans are traditionally chosen by members of SAC, who seek students that would successfully raise school spirit and lead the community.

SAC vice president Siri Pattison asked Hilton and Hembre if they were interested in the position and said, “I just think they’re full of positive Spartan energy and that the SPA community would respond really well to their leadership and enthusiasm.”

One way the Spartan embodies school pride is through their most iconic job: leading the Spartan Beat.
Hilton mentioned that his main inspirations were the Spartans of recent years, but the Spartan Beat also left a significant impression on him as a child.

“Letting someone down is a hard thing to do,” Hilton said.

“And when you’re approached and asked [by SAC] … it’s hard to say no, but afterwards, I looked back on it and I realized that ever since I was a small child, I had seen the Spartan … doing their beat, and I realized that I would too like to be the one leading the beat.”

Hembre was similarly influenced by previous Spartans to lead the community.

“I’ve not researched the Spartan maybe as much as Henry has, but I also did not want to let … our community down, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to be the best Spartan this school has ever seen,” he said.

Beyond the Spartan’s role as an emblem of school spirit during homecoming, Hilton and Hembre hope to expand the role throughout the school year; for example, by speaking more frequently at assemblies. They also hope to expand the Spartan’s symbolic definition.

“We want to make it clear that the Spartan is not there to represent just the soccer player that scores lots of goals in the homecoming game. We want to represent all of the Spartans [that] aren’t usually represented within the pride of our institution of SPA,” Hilton said. “If you do some random club, you’re still a Spartan representing the school … and we don’t want you to forget that.”

While the Spartan might be a temporary icon to some students, it also has the potential to symbolize much more.

For Hembre and Hilton, ensuring all students are represented equally and spreading “a tsunami of classic Spartan pride and spirit,” as described by Hilton, is their most important mission this year.

As students gather together in the bleachers, on the field, and by the pool, SPA teams rely on fans to bring the energy. Each team has its own set of cheers, including the schoolwide classic “Spartan Beat.”

Dagney Bruun, an SPA lifer since kindergarten, has fond memories of lower school homecoming celebrations, where seniors go to the lower school and teach them the Spartan beat.

As a junior varsity volleyball player, Bruun also hopes to hear other cheers at her matches.

“I want to do other cheers like ‘ace cheers’ in volleyball,” she said.

Bruun will be listening for extra loud cheers for aces and kills at future volleyball matches or maybe Dig Pink.

Aurelia Meza, captain of the soccer team, said, “I always look forward to the soccer season; it’s a good fun community, and everyone wants to be there and work hard.”

SPA students should celebrate this hard work and bring the cheering up on the sidelines.

“On the bus ride to away games we have two different cheers; one’s called Thunderation and one’s Victory, where each grade will spell out victory,” Meza said.

The team with the most cheers is SPARKS; girls swimming has four cheers that they rely on to get hype.
Alba Markowitz Mulet, a member of the team, said, “We have some of them that we do on the bus beforehand to hype us up and then others during the meets.”

One of them is recited on the bus: “‘One, we are the SPARK’s, two a little bit louder, three, I still can’t hear you, four: more more more!’ and then you keep going,” she said.

“The 500 free is a pretty long event, so we have one while the varsity people are swimming down,” Markowitz Mulet said.

Starting with, “Tooty fruity SPARKs’ booty, watch the SPARKs go down,” Markowitz Mulet explained that each grade level goes down and through all the grades.

Showing some commonality between the pitch and the pool, both the soccer team and the swim team do a victory chant: “‘V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, that’s the SPARK’s battle cry,’ and then one side of the best goes ‘la la la’ and the other goes ‘SPARKs are the best!’” Markowitz Mulet said.

“I’m so excited for homecoming games and other events,” Bruun said.