Encourage the student body to get excited for athletic events by arranging dress-up days. These special days can be for a big game, a week-long promotion or one specific day each week. For example, ask students to dress up every day for the week of homecoming in different attire each day, like pajamas on Monday, crazy hair on Tuesday, etc. For a year-long theme, consider choosing every Friday to be a school spirit day, where students dress up in apparel supporting school teams.
Organize pep rallies to get ready for an upcoming game or to recognize achievement. Gathering the entire student body is an opportunity to introduce players and coaches, recognize achievements and build excitement through cheers, skits, games and marching band performances. Ask cheerleaders, class officers or student council members to help lead these assemblies. Host a pep rally before every game, or one a week on a specific day, to recognize and wish luck to all teams for the week's events.
Create a school spirit competition and award students or groups who exhibit the most spirit. Knowing there is a competition for a spirit award encourages students to take an active role in supporting school sports. Individual competitions might include giving points for participating in dress-up days, trivia games about team statistics or a locker decorating contest; the person with the most points wins. For year-long competitions, ask students, teachers and community members to nominate and vote for the student they believe showed the most spirit by participating in school spirit activities, attending events and showing enthusiasm for promoting school sports.
Build enthusiasm for school sports and raise money at the same time by organizing fundraisers. Consider hosting a community chicken barbecue, a pie-in-the-face contest or an alumni tournament. Make fundraisers relevant to the community and consider an overlap of the fundraiser and a sporting event. For example, set up a fundraiser to throw a pie in the face of the local celebrity who raises the most funds and have the pie-in-the-face event take place at halftime of the football game.