Last year, the class of 2016 was dead last in the rankings for Homecoming Cup. Last year, we blamed it on being freshmen. This year, running around whining, “It’s rigged! The freshmen always lose!”  is no longer an excuse for our shameful levels of participation. The freshman took first and we lost yet again.

Face it sophomores: we have no spirit.

Our lack of school spirit is nothing but our own fault, more specifically, your own fault. A large percentage of our class goes around grumbling that everyone else needs to dress up for spirit days while they fail to do so themselves.

If you want us to do better in class competitions, improvement starts with your own actions. If each individual could just put in a little more effort, the results would be amazing.

Don’t blame ASB, either. They work hard every day as representatives for our class, but we can’t hold them responsible for doing everything it takes to out-spirit the other grades. Do them a favor and help out with decorating, or anything really, because all of their work is in vain if we don’t come through for them.

The worst offenders, though, are not those who blame our lack of success on others, but the people who don’t care at all. Yes, there is no tangible reward for winning any of the spirit competitions, but they are a classic part of high school. You only have four years here at Liberty, so you may as well embrace them and the traditions that come with it.

I’m really not asking much of you: this would only require a tiny amount of effort.

If we don’t start getting it together now, we will find ourselves ending up as that sad, spiritless senior class that no one wants to be a part of. Don’t make me say I told you so.