Written By: Elle
Edited By: Lia
Graphic By: Mr. McCarthy
Can a school become too competitive for its own good? There comes a point where competitive mindsets begin to override what a spirited school can truly be.
When BOB first began in 1998, points were awarded for winning events, and Mr. Butcher, a longstanding teacher at ISM, said, “It became like a rivalry, but it was also unfair because you can’t expect freshmen to beat seniors in events like sports.” Furthermore, when asked why he thought the point system should change, Mr. Woods, the CAS coordinator, expressed, “In my view, none of this [the day being mostly sports and points-based] represented the real diversity and talent of the High School.” Eventually, ISSBA, GLCs, student councils, and HS administration unanimously agreed that the point system had to be reformatted, specifically in favor of spirit over winning events. So, as the point system changed to prioritize spirit, the big question became: could freshmen and sophomores step up when they faced fewer disadvantages?
As a new student in 2025, before BOB began, I heard from most freshmen that they knew they wouldn’t win, so I believed this too. This mindset gave freshmen an excuse to take it easy during BOB. The freshmen’s belief in the improbability, if not impossibility, of winning BOB illustrates how seniors used to always be expected to take the win, with Mr Woods saying, “When I first joined ISM, everyone already knew the seniors would win.” Other batches didn’t see it as a high-pressure competition that they needed to put all of their effort toward. For freshmen, BOB was simply a day of fun: a way to immerse themselves and feel a sense of accomplishment, especially soon after entering high school, and to give new students a day to truly see ISM’s spirit and to instill a feeling of belonging.
However, as other batches, such as the sophomores in 2024, won, the strategies used in the game and the mindsets of students shifted. Seniors could no longer rely on the expectation of being the winners. Strategies were put into place to maximize chant practices, councils put in more hours for planning, including during their summer break, and more effort was put into covering the most ground during BOB. This meant employing chant groups for some batches, where each group would be assigned events to cheer at, so that the batch could have more opportunities to win spirit points across more events. The following year, BOB 2025 represented this shift, becoming one of the most competitive BOBs, especially between the juniors, who had won the year prior, and the seniors. One student reflected that the juniors might have been too confident. Annika (12) said, “We lost a lot of motivation in junior year simply due to ego because I think the mindset was, ‘We won once; we can win again.’” Their junior year loss represented that a previous victory did not guarantee a following one.
Furthermore, grade-level feedback forms sent to class councils, especially during the heated BOB competitions, also illustrate these competitive mentalities. Many students argued over point systems, with some saying the solution should be one point for winning gold and one point for spirit because “People weren’t trying at events because they knew spirit mattered more than gold, etc.”
This rise in motivation and, at times, cutthroat spirit from the batches begs the question: how does this change how new students feel about BOB? Overall, BOB is a confusing concept for both new students and teachers; most expect the day to feel overly chaotic because, in comparison to most school spirit days, BOB is taken much more seriously. Moreover, most might expect chaos because it isn’t a common sight to see 200+ students in one batch have the ability to organize themselves and be on the same page throughout an entire day. Also, the idea of every high school student being in the HS gym all at once can sound daunting at first. BOB can be a way to find belonging, but does the intensity make this possible? A new student in 2025, Jackson (12), comments on this feeling when entering junior year, saying, “Unlike the other students in my batch, I didn’t feel like I had something to lose since I hadn’t experienced the win; this made me somewhat indifferent and confused about the concept of BOB.” This signifies that BOB can feel overwhelming at first, but the secondhand vibrancy and passion from students feel almost contagious, to the point where they drive the energy and represent the overarching Bearcat pride.
Every year, BOB becomes a more elaborate event, with batches making chants that feel like a show, cheers that become almost theatrical, and strategies that are thought through to make sure their spirit reaches each and every corner of the school. On the surface, this might make BOB feel like it is competition over spirit, but has it been considered that maybe the two are not as separate as they seem? The strategies students create are not detached from their spirit, but rather are the way that students choose to express their spirit.
The class of 2027’s win in 2024 proved that winning did not belong to the seniors, but instead that any batch could win by organizing hundreds of students to share one goal. Since then, each batch has tried to improve on what came before them, turning preparation into its own form of Bearcat pride. The competition may determine who receives the points, but it is the process of competing that brings students together.
Although the thought of BOB for a new student might feel intimidating, once everyone links their arms and begins their chant, it is hard to remain an outsider. Whether students came in first or last, second or third, they have spent an entire day creating something together that couldn’t have been possible without them. Mr. Woods encapsulated this when he said, “But ask any teacher or student who’s gone on to another school after ISM, and they’ll often tell you BOB was the most spirited spirit day they’ve ever experienced.”
So, has BOB become too competitive for its own good? Or is the better question whether spirit and competition were ever isolated from one another? Through BOB’s evolution, the winner might be one batch every year, but the true victory is for the entire high school, where hundreds of students found a reason to work together, cheer together, and be a part of something bigger than themselves. Winning BOB might give a batch bragging rights for the rest of the year, but no matter who wins or loses, the sense of belonging lasts forever.
