Several days ago, we walked into newspaper class to find Ms. Derryberry’s table littered with old copies of our beloved newspaper. We spent a period looking back through our predecessors’ work, and what we came to realize was that Hellgate has officially exited its “Golden Age,” a time where the student body was energetic and spirited, happenings at Hellgate were exciting, and the world was clean and pure.
Hellgate’s Golden Age can broadly be defined as the period from 2009-2019, when an avalanche of school spirit seemed to careen down every outlet for students from their freshman to senior years. This time period reflects an age when it was cool to be passionate, to strut down the hallway with a now unseen genuine confidence. Our society today is reliant on social media fads that dictate our composure. The coolest people are the least considerate, and the common traits associated with popularity have changed over time to reflect an overwhelming and general indifference.
When examining copies of the Lance from the Golden Age, the first thing we noticed was an absence of this dynamic. The student body displayed a sort of joyful disregard for the opinions of others, manifesting in a genuine and animated mood about the building. Without the subconscious fear of judgment that plagues us all in this day and age, however insignificant or profound it may be person-to-person, Hellgate students were happier and more carefree. It was clear based on facial expressions alone that they were, in a word, themselves. This led to louder student sections at sporting events, a more diverse range of expertise, and a set of surprising and unique Hellgate occurrences not seen today.
For example, during the 2018 homecoming football game in which Hellgate broke a historic six-year losing streak (some things never change), the field was graced by the appearance of three streakers. While this behaviour isn’t necessarily appropriate, it is indicative of a broader, more genuine, spirited and energetic student culture. These three miscreants were so overcome with joy, unhindered by concern for what peers, teachers, and SRO’s would think of them, that they chose to declothe themselves bare before the city in a show of school spirit. Such an occurrence, which by no means is advisable in a literal sense but serves as an example of the conditions defining an age passed, would be unthinkable for the current Hellgate student body.
Shameless demonstrations of both effort and spirit were common. In 2009, a sophomore at the time named Connor Glynn hand-crafted a red and gold Hellgate suit out of duct tape and wore it to school for spirit week. While commonplace at the time, a Hellgate student today would much rather spend the hours required to make Glynn’s outfit scrolling TikTok, the suit becoming the same tried and true sweats and hoodie worn yesterday.
Today, the average high school is defined by a different set of rules, causing students to be afraid of being their true, spirited selves. This reality can be tracked through Hellgate’s loss of spirit gradually, even as recently as from our freshman to senior years. Goat week, an event that would have surely been a conduit of uproar and rowdiness in the Golden Age, seemed more and more like a second thought to many Knights this year. Spirit Weeks feel sparsely participated in as the general saturation of the student body’s personality dissipates into doldrum.
When we were freshmen, the spirited nature of seniors like Jules Lane and Carter Polanchek inspired us to get rowdy. With one of us being senior class president and the other winning the “most spirited” senior superlative, their intensity has obviously left impressions on us. We just wish that their impacts could have been translated to the younger classes, or even some of our classmates.
As we simultaneously realize that our time within the halls of Hellgate is it nearing its end and reflect back over our senior year and broader career as a Knight, we can only conclude that we have failed you. We have failed to be the role models that legends like Lane and Polanchek were to us, those jumping and screaming figures looming large at the front of every student section. A school’s energy is only as good as that of its senior class, and by that way of reasoning ours was insufficient. The class of ‘26 certainly didn’t end the Golden Age, but we did little to revive it.
However, there is still hope. This existential threat can still be corrected. The student body must simply embrace the forgotten art of rowdiness and reject the creeping vines of nonchalance that have denied the Knights their castle. With the remainder of our time at this school, we will do all we can to return Hellgate to its Golden Age. However, the class of 2027 are the ones more responsible to embrace this undertaking. Let your spirit be the torch that burns the bramble from the brick and sets another age where Knights are no longer afraid to be courageous and outspoken. In retrospect of our time at Hellgate High School, the negative trends in spirit that we have seen surely exist, but they are far from being set in stone. We have a strong adoration for our school, and wish to see it returned to its former glory. Never be afraid to “Be A Knight.”
