GRANITE FALLS — Sometimes showing your school spirit means strapping wheels to a canoe.
Brandon Gilbertson and four of his friends did just that Wednesday.
Welcome to Spirit Week at Granite Falls High School.
Students are displaying their true colors — orange and black — during the week-long celebration.
Like most districts in Snohomish County, Spirit Week in Granite Falls includes themed dress-up days, the big game and the first dance of the year.
Wednesday was Flotation Device Day, inspiring Brandon and his friends to get their canoe rolling. The group rode it down the halls, drawing a crowd and getting one teacher to shoot video on his iPhone.
“It’s just kind of a way to let go,” Brandon said of Spirit Week, “to do something out of the ordinary — to show everyone you’re involved.”
Thousands of students across Snohomish County play a part in their annual fall celebrations.
This year, Spirit Week in Granite Falls kicked off with themed dress-up days. Old favorites, like a day focused on school colors, were followed by newer events. Students wore pink to raise awareness about breast cancer, dressed up as fashion disasters and had Twin Day, where students pair off and dress alike.
“In high school, people spend so much time trying to be cool,” said history teacher Adam Gessaman, who helps plan the week. “It’s nice to have permission to be a kid.”
Spirit Week also acts as a giant hype machine for the big Friday night football game, Gessaman said.
The Granite Falls Tigers will use that boost as they face off against their archrivals, the Sultan High School Turks.
The game might attract 2,000 cheering fans — more than half of Granite Falls’ population of 3,200.
All the hoopla puts the team under pressure, head coach Tracey Bechtholdt said.
“It’s just the history of the game of football, and the story of homecoming,” he said. “It’s culminated to what it is today. Everybody can remember their homecoming game.”
Then there’s the dance. Anticipation for that event runs high. Students end up going all-out when they ask out their dates.
Take Joey Best, 18. He used a volleyball to invite Kacie Hillery, 16.
Before one of her games, he pulled aside coaches and referees, to make sure he could disrupt play. Then, during the game, he swapped places with a ref and handed Kacie a ball.
She was a bit confused and started bouncing it, her pre-serve ritual. She didn’t realize it was covered in writing.
“Everyone knew what was going on except for me,” she said.
“Kacie, look at the ball!” someone shouted.
That got her attention.
“One two three, you and me,” read Joey’s invitation.
She looked at Joey. They both blushed.
She said yes — a big relief for him, since the two aren’t dating.
“She’s just, I don’t know, one of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” he said.
Kyle Glover, 17, felt confident when he asked his date, Aly Silveira, 18. They’ve dated for a year. She deserved more than a simple invitation, he decided.
“It’s my senior year,” he said. “I wanted to do something out of the blue.”
He bought three pieces of plywood and Christmas lights, cut more than a hundred holes in the wood and pushed through the colored bulbs. The makeshift reader board was more than 6 feet tall and 10 feet wide.
“Aly,” it said. “Homecoming?”
He put it alongside Highway 92, on his family’s land. He asked Aly’s parents to drive her past on their way to dinner. That night, he got an excited phone call from her, saying “Yes.”
Now all he has to worry about is prom.
“I’m going to have to really up the bar,” he said.
Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455; arathbun@heraldnet.com
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