The 2024-2025 school year at Spanish Fork High School can be summed up with one word: new. With a brand new school, nearly everything inside and out is … new.
Even with a new building, SFHS principal Matt Christensen said that it is important to hold on to many traditions that made the high school what it is today. He spoke to Serve Daily about three of those traditions that he hopes to continue for generations to come. He spoke first of the Victory Bell.
“Our Victory Bell started back in 1968,” Christensen explained. “There was an old elementary school up where the city offices are, and they took that bell in the sixties and brought it down to the high school. Any time we had a victory, like a home football victory or a basketball win, they would ring that bell. And so that tradition has lasted for decades. We decided to take the bell off the old high school, and we’ve actually relocated it to a temporary spot until phase three of construction is complete and then we’ll have a permanent home for it.”
Christensen then spoke about “the rock,” which has been a staple for over 40 years, giving students a canvas to celebrate important events.
“We have ‘the rock’ in front of our school, and it’s been there since the late seventies,” Christensen explained. We relocated it to the new school and we repaint it for events. It’s been painted hundreds and hundreds of times for nearly 50 years now. It was used in the early days as a marquee, where students would paint things like, ‘Hey, come to the game tonight.’ We paint the dance themes on it, or about plays we’re putting on. If we’re doing Hope week, we paint that. It’s just a fun tradition that we’ve kept and tried to preserve.”
The last tradition Christensen said he is excited to be holding on to, is the mosaic tile that was in the old gym.
“We had a mosaic tile in our old gym that was from the class of ‘72, I believe – maybe it was ‘76,” Christensen recalled. “There are 10,000 pieces to this tile, and we’re actually in the process of refurbishing and putting up the mosaic again.”
Christensen explained that the mosaic is the Spanish Don, which is the school’s mascot. He said that he hopes that it will all be put back together within the next month.
“It’s a really cool tradition and feature that we wanted to bring over to the new school,” he said.
Christensen isn’t just the school’s principal, but a native of Spanish Fork and graduate of SFHS, class of 1997. He also taught, coached, and was an assistant principal at the school before assuming the role of principal. He said that he’s excited to begin the new year AND new school with the old traditions, while still holding plenty of space for the making of new ones. He spoke excitedly about having a good start to the school year – speaking specifically about a heroic event that happened on August 24.
“Last Saturday, we had a cross country meet down at the Sports Park and we had one of our parents who I know really well – he’s on our school community council – who went into cardiac arrest,” he recalled. “A couple of our cross country athletes were critical in keeping him alive, with one calling 9-11 and the other started CPR and, and our trainer was there, too. The gentleman was rescued and that was a heroic event by some of our youth. It was really cool to see.”
Christensen said with the new added space to the school, particularly the commons area, that he is excited to have events where the student body can gather and make new memories. He said while there are no new official traditions, it is the students and faculty who twillalways make SFHS a great place to be.
“We have really strong programs led by great teachers,” Christensen said. “Our drama department is so strong, and our fine arts are really picking up. Our wrestling and softball programs won state last year. We have some really strong programs and we just want to keep building on those and continue to move forward with Spanish Fork High School being an important part of the community.”
