Spirit runs deep in room 215, or at least it did in past years. Chad Mateske’s advisory class is known for winning the homecoming spirit trophy every year. This year, however, is different. With advisory only meeting on Wednesday’s, spirit competitions are now run within students’ third hour classes. For Mateske, this means trying to hype up a whole new group of students, preserving his reputation, and keeping the trophy.

During this homecoming week at Wauwatosa West, third hour classes can earn points for dressing up, donating granola bars, keeping the spirit stick, participating in musical chairs, and figuring out who stole Tommy Trojan.  When competitions were run with advisories, Mateske’s homeroom excelled.

“We have won the competition 5 times, including the last three years in a row” said Mateske. 

According to Mateske, the first step to winning is creating the right atmosphere.

“We just talk it up and get the upper classmen to tap into their competitive spirit and then have the underclassmen feed off of the energy of the upperclassmen.  We sometimes have had “tryouts” for whatever the competition is that you send someone from your Advisory to try. We also just ask kids to talk with families about bringing in donations and explain where the donations go to” explained Mateske. He also said that each year his kids bring home a “win”, motivates them even more to continue their streak the next year. 

However this year, Mateske’s has to create the same environment in a class of  freshmen. He has faith in their abilities, but their newness to high school and unfamiliarity with homecoming week, creates another challenge. 

“I have a small class of freshmen in 3rd Hour and so we are doing our best to embrace the chance to try and keep the trophy in Room 215.  It helped that Mr. Oliver came in with his entire AP Gov class to talk smack while wearing a Viking helmet. My third very quickly pointed out that the trophy seems to be in Room 215 and they intend to keep it! Up till then I thought I only had about 4-5 kids caring about it”.

No matter the outcome, Mateske is proud of the spirit being shown by his third hour. He has also been impressed by the spirit still being shown by his past advisory students. 

“We are doing our best…Though I will tell you I have 215 Killaz agents (past advisory students) strewn throughout the 3rd hours in the school trying to win the trophy for our Advisory in spirit!”