Every Friday night, students around Kirkwood dress themselves in elaborate outfits, face paint, and props in order to fit the theme of that night’s Pioneer football game. These themes such as white out, jungle and farm give the student section the chance to get creative with their spirit wear, and add even more anticipation to the already exciting football games. As Kirkwood entered districts against De Smet Jesuit High School at 7 p.m. October 29, students dressed up for the last game of the season before Turkey Day. So with the football season coming to a close, it is time to recap students thoughts on the Friday night themes this year. 

Elaina McEntire, junior, has attended every football game this season to see her boyfriend, Alex Ludbrook, junior, play. She said she has loved being able to dress up with the themes and personalize her costume when she can. Her favorite themes have been USA and jungle because she said they were unique and allowed her more freedom with her outfits. For example, she got to wear a safari vest and hat to spice up her regular blue jeans and T-shirt for the jungle theme.

“I was able to get crafty with what I was wearing,” McEntire said. “I wish that for the jungle [theme], we could have been able to bring in stuffed animals.” 

Sasha Boyd, sophomore, has attended every home game as a pommie, but because of her uniform, hasn’t had many opportunities to dress up. Despite this, she said she still loves being able to see people interpret the themes in their own way, especially the beach theme.

“I loved getting to see everyone in their colorful Hawaiian shirts and hula skirts,” Boyd said. “[The beach theme is] definitely my favorite theme so far.”

While Boyd loves dressing according to the themes when she can, she said she would have changed the USA theme. Although McEntire said she enjoyed personalizing the theme, Boyd said personalization of this theme could be a problem, since people could use it as an excuse to be political.

“[The USA theme is] not inherently political, [but] it did invite many people to wear clothing with controversial and political messages,” Boyd said. “Whoever picked out the theme should have taken that possibility into consideration.”

Mitchell Fales, junior, said that the jersey theme was his least favorite, as it didn’t allow for students to have fun with creating their own outfits. Both McEntire and Fales said they would like to see more unusual, and versatile themes in the future because some of them can get repetitive. Different themes Fales and McEntire recommended were Pioneer and neon as they might allow students to get more creative with what they wear, and are broad enough to account for different conditions.

“The theme should correlate to the weather,” Fales said. “And the people who we’re playing [against].”

Students such as McEntire said they have been satisfied with what Pep Nation has done with football games this year. McEntire, Fales, and Boyd all said they dressed up for as many games as they could, and look forward to seeing what Pep Nation comes up with next year.

“I’ve enjoyed most of what Pep Nation has done,” McEntire said. “No real complaints, [I] just want to see something new.”