By Keith Bender ’11
The Roundup

While many Brophy students wonder what handbook-defying shenanigans the seniors in the class of 2010 will orchestrate next, a concerned minority frets about something with bigger implications than a Saturday JUG: Can the class of 2011 effectively assume the gap in leadership, school spirit and unity that will be left by the departing seniors?

If there existed somewhere within the depths of Romley Hall a CIA-like dossier documenting the activities of each class, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the class of 2011’s would be the thickest.

Yet despite our past wrongdoings, we are now being afforded a superb opportunity to emerge from any temporary reputation and create for our class a lasting and unique legacy.

As the Student Council enters its second year without position titles, there is once again no official student body president.

This places the responsibility for leadership upon not only all of us in Student Council, but on each and every member of our class.

Let us all be as dutiful and diligent, charismatic and creative, and supportive and spirited as we would expect our student body president to be.

We must employ all of these qualities if we wish to have a memorable senior year, and be unafraid to cast ourselves as leaders on this campus.

A fixture at Brophy sporting events for the past several years, the spirited student cheering section has traditionally been led by seniors.

There is no clear 2011 contingent that appears set to fulfill this role, though undoubtedly competition will be fierce during the first several football games for the coveted midfield railing spot.

Whoever emerges from the fray, shirtless and with their chests painted to spell “BRONCOS,” I must advise you: this is a commitment.

It is easy to show up to a home game, but it takes true school spirit to travel to Mesa or Glendale to support the Broncos.

Anybody will go to a football game; but the seniors, the leaders of this school, should attend less-publicized sporting events if only to appreciate all that our athletes invest in their sports.

I might add school spirit does not only manifest itself in attending sporting events.

It is one thing to be proud of your school, and another entirely to make your school proud of you.

Seniors are expected to be the most developed, the most conscious and the most capable of living those qualities we associate with the Graduate at Graduation. Live with this in mind, and know that by doing so, you display true school spirit.

Perhaps the greatest symbol of unity on campus is the David Brown Student Mall, wherein one will find a large portion of the senior class planted upon the grassy knoll in the middle of the area.

With all providence the class of 2011 will be able to transition smoothly in its occupation of that same spot at the beginning of next year.

For that to happen, however, social groups must not merely tolerate but embrace each other.

Hopefully, the realization that this will be our final year at Brophy will drive Info Commons and football room cave-dwellers and Great Hall climate-controlled refuge seekers alike to converge upon the mall.

From this simple migration comes an even greater hope: that this unity, signified by our togetherness in the Mall, will translate to unity in all things we do at Brophy and beyond.

I sincerely believe that the class of 2011 is capable of assuming its leadership role as seniors and I look forward to all that next year has in store.

As I mentioned in my recent Student Council election speech, I want the class of 2011 to be respected, to be legendary.

Now we must work together to achieve this and assert our seniority.