Spirit Week a Huge Success

Maroon and White canvassed the student body on Friday the 28th's pep rally, faces were painted and the booster club’s new apparel releases were proudly displayed on students and staff across campus. The energy level in the school was tangible. It wasn't just the students who were excited, Principal Dippipo and Vice Principal Verner sweated it out all day in anticipation of the festivities to come.  As it turned out, they worried over nothing.    A new format was used for this year’s rally, focusing in more on sports and clubs, unifying rather than pitting the classes against each other in a basketball tourney.   Each sport provided an entertaining act and each club was allowed a quick recruitment pitch.Cross country kicked off the rally with a demonstration of them playing all the sports.  Failing miserably, they concluded with a banner saying "this is why we run".  Each

Field Hockey performers

 sport continued to present creative introductions, Volleyball had an impressive strip into their spandex to "Don't Drop That Thun Thun", Field hockey was able to produce a ritual-esque dance centered around a three girls in gray

A serious shock factor

hooded sweatshirts,  it was a truly unique dance, where you might have had to be there to appreciate it. Football had Dan Delos perform an tantalizing dance in which he was soaked by manager Katie Hill via a stream of water form the Gatorade bottles.  After a quite impressive rip-removal of the shirt, Dan joined the football team in a dance off that escalated to a quality well worthy of Step-up film.  Girls soccer showed their dancing ability as well, performing a multitude of hit dances mashed up and choreographed by the Skinner sisters (Emma-Junior and Abbe-Freshman).  In contrast to the provocative mood of the Girls soccer's performance, the JV Boys Soccer team entered the gymnasium to the anthem of "300 Violin Orchestra", stone-faced, everyone knew that this was a team that wanted to win, just as the junior varsity squad wrapped up the speakers switched to the great 2006 hit, "Fergilicous" and the soccer varsity team paraded in wearing obscene jean shorts.  While some cringed at the sight, it is only fair to note that some girls did note the impressive legs on full display. Nonetheless a good laugh was had by all.  This years pep rally went down as the best in a long time from both student and faculty perspectives, a feat not easily accomplished.Later that night, the Homecoming dance was a huge success with over 270 tickets sold, the largest out of school student involvement on any dance in the past 4 years, possibly a school record.  The Homecoming King, Colby Buehler and his date, Queen Emma First took the Senior vote decisively.  Their Underclassmen court was filled as follows:

• Juniors: Sebastian Gumbs and Sam Fine

• Sophomores: Will Carlson and Kelsey Beadle 

• Freshman: Patrick Lagonigro and Maggie Coleman

Despite the pre-dance nerves of the administration, after the activities were all wrapped up Mr. Verner was pleasantly surprised at how well the students were behaving. “The kids at Bolton were not bad kids, but it still took some work to get them to behave, at Canton it was unreal, the students were good the whole night and neatly filed out when the dance was over.”   From the words of the Vice it sounds like the Students are exceeding the expectations for behavior set forth by the new administration, the Warrior Way is catching hold.The home football game on the 29th was a blowout.  The Warriors completely decimated the Mountaineers and sent them headed back for the hills, no reservation soil would be conquered that day. JV played the entire second half and still managed to put in an additional touchdown adding to Varsity's 41-0 lead established at the half.  The remainder of the details of this game are irrelevant, Canton was far superior, that was about it.'Merica Monday was a novel theme day that brought back the great feelings of summer and the Fourth of July, participation was almost at 100%.  Finding a more patriotic town in the country would be near impossible.  Even Washington D.C. had nothing on Canton that Monday.Apocalypse Tuesday had similar success, with Canton students realizing that with a bandanna and a whole lot of eye black, any world disaster is avoidable.Fairy and Wizard Wednesday left many students in tutus that probably shouldn't have been, but this week was full of edgy dressing, so nothing was out of the question, comic relief aside the school spirit was awesome.  Glitter showered in the halls, and many students tried to use their wands to make tests go away, but alas, in accordance with the edict issued by the administration, academics continued in full force.

Wednesday night was the Talent Show, Hosted by Seniors Ahmed Al-aqel and Andrew Zukowski, it was a night of laughs and jaw dropping Talent (all captured on tape by the folks at CHS TV). In third was the female members of the CHS Chamber Singers who have formed up to become 'The Pitches', a fantastic acapella group.  They  performed a remarkable rendition of Lorde's "Royals". Second place was a yearly top-performer, the Field Hockey Team, who had a creative upbeat dance to "California Gurls". First place was once again bestowed to Bailey Jeffko who wrote an original song about the outgoing Senior class.  Other highlights from the night included; Ahmed calling Mr. Dippipo "Mr. Pepin", 'Evolution of Dance 2' by Sophomore Donnie Zeffiro as well the numerous lists compiled by the hosts.Throwback Thursday (aka Decade Day) was phenomenal, bright colors, big hair, short shorts were a few of the visually stimulating  outfits donned by the students. In accordance with the radiation:

80's fun

• Seniors were the 80's

• Juniors were the 60's

• Sophomores were the 70's

• Freshmen were the 50's 

The conclusion of the in-school activities took place on Friday the 4th, Class Competition day.  Each class donned its respective color and packed the gym for periods E, F and G.  The Seniors kicked off the event with a synchronized entrance to drop it like an earthquake that set the tine for the remainder of the rally.  Competition was fierce especially between the Juniors and Senior class, with an sudden death win for the Junior Blue being matched by a strong Senior Black pull in the tug-of-war.  Devin Glasson came in like Brophy (see previous article A Real Cinderella Story: Canton Football beats Avon 16-13) in the pie eating contest, suffering through sugar laden torment for the Senior victory.After school on Friday the tail end of Spirit Week athletics began.  The wigwam was packed for the Girls Volleyball team's close loss to Suffield.  The same fans, and then some made it over to Bowdoin for the Field Hockey under-the- lights game versus Westbrook.  An overtime draw left fans wanting more.  Immediately following the 0-0 game, the Boy's and Girl's soccer teams took to the field for their annual night practice and tailgate in preparation for Saturday's night game.  Food was in massive quantities and any student who found themselves in the CHS parking lot received the full hospitality of the soccer parents and left with a bloated stomach.Saturday was a day of three athletic contests.  Football took a tough loss to Hyde, in the afternoon.  Despite Canton's one point lead at half, and consistent defense throughout the game, the Hyde team was able to sneak in a 4th quarter touchdown that the Canton offense was unable to answer.  Soon after footballs finish, the six o'clock Girl's Soccer game was off.  In a hard fight against Ellington the Girls lost 4-0.  The Boys game started at eight and featured escorts from Canton Youth Soccer Teams as well as the National Anthem sung by Bailey Jeffko (who sang for all Spirit Week games).  This game had record attendance and proved to be a thriller.  A close 0-0 game for the first part of the first half, Canton fell behind 1-0 about 20 minutes in. It stayed 1-0, Canton fueling off the crowd, for most of the game until Ellington managed to score an additional goal sinking Canton to a 2-0 loss.  Even though the team was down the student fans never were, keeping lively and engaged the whole match.  In short, this year's Spirit Week was a huge success.  The Senior Class was an excellent group of role models and leaders and deservedly won after NHS fully tallied the results.  Mr. Verner hopped on the announcements Monday to acknowledge that he was "extremely proud and pleased" of the whole school during the whirlwind of a week.  The Seniors set quite the precedent with the new administration, and it looks as if Spirit Week is back bigger than ever and here to stay at CHS. -Justin Fortier
*authors note - If you find typos please let me know because I am awful at editing.  More importantly, if you would like to write for the Quipo email me at thequipo@gmail.com, I'd love to have you.