Leading up to homecoming week, freshmen advisories school-wide were tasked to work as a team in this year’s door dec competition. Given the theme of “Camp Spartan,” students had one week to assemble the best-looking door for a chance to win a free pizza party. 

Doors were judged starting Mon., Sept. 26. To achieve a perfect score, a design had to excel in four criteria: creativity, accuracy to the theme, “wow” factor, and teamwork. A panel composed of five judges each gave every door a score of 1-5 in the first three factors, while a class teamwork score was determined via Google form completed by their respective teacher. Cooperation was key to the success of many classes, with many top performers scoring highly in this category. A team’s final score was the average value of these combined individual scores. 

The victor of this year’s competition was first-year teacher Alexis Griffin’s advisory, who achieved a nearly perfect score on their door, with an average of 14.2 out of 15 total possible points per judge. They went with a Spongebob-themed design, with a hand-drawn Spongebob cutout holding a BHS flag next to a campfire, while singing the “Campfire Song” from his show. “It was nice to see them hold each other accountable,” Griffin said, “It was just nice seeing the different teamwork, working together, with groups of kids I‘ve never seen work together, or kids that have never talked to anyone else in the class were working on it, It was great.” Part of the winning team, Freshman Oliver Linss, also shared this appreciation for how the competition brought his class together. “People that didn’t know each other might’ve been in a group with someone else that they don’t know, and working together just brought them closer together as a class,” Linss said.

Freshmen’s creativity and hard work can still be seen on doors school-wide, and although this year’s homecoming door dec competition has come to a close.