Beat Glendale Day. Three words that bring so much adrenaline to the students and staff of Hoover High School every year. It is a long-standing rivalry — one of the longest in the entire state — between Glendale High School and Hoover that began in 1930. For the last 40-plus years, BGD has had many traditions such as class skits, posters, and other activities — from chalking in the quad to quiz bowls between each class and other fun activities and competitions. It is a week full of excitement and school pride that brings everyone together.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, plans have changed drastically for the week of BGD and students are now wondering how it will all fall out. The Associated Student Body of Hoover once again is working on solutions to make the school year more festive and to try and engage students in the most efficient manner.

So what exactly will happen this year? Although CIF pushed back all sports to the second semester, including football, during the week of November 16-20, there will be a virtual BGD, “which means a different format while maintaining our strong traditions” said ASB President Maria Akhverdyan.

“We will host a virtual BGD skit with our individual class themes, have a poster, and an online competition with many activities which include a video game competition against our rival: Glendale High School,” Akhverdyan said.

The poster this year will be smaller than normal and will be created with minimal help from students.

Spirit week will still continue on during the week with a different theme each day. Like the second half of last year, students will be contacted through social media platforms and personally reached to ensure participation from students.

Due to distance learning, “it is much harder to get students to participate, but we reach out and urge them to participate still. We also post on our school Instagram accounts about any upcoming events or something,” stated Sophomore Class President Amanda Bystrom.

Junior Class President Jessica Voskanian said, “Even when we did on-campus learning, we always encouraged students to participate in activities to raise school spirit. Each class has an assigned Instagram and a Google Classroom where we post important reminders and events like spirit week. Spirit week will also be advertised on the Hoover High School website and on Dr. Earl’s Sunday calls.”

Each ASB class president mentioned that this year there is going to be one video filmed by the ASB team using Zoom; therefore it will be pre-recorded. They are going to work with what they have and follow the restrictions that were given to them.

Max Metzler, the scriptwriter of the skit, gave a little inside scoop of their ideas. “The video is basically going to be a zoom parody of the movie Unfriended. The plot is basically that the BGD bell is haunted by a ghost and a group of people are attacked over zoom by it.”

Voskanian mentioned that the BGD traditions were important to continue even during an unusual and chaotic school year. “BGD has been going on since the late 1930s and we have not had a year that we have not done the traditions, BGD traditions are a big part of Hoover and what we stand for.” Bystrom added that “it’s important to keep the school spirit going even if we aren’t physically at school.”

Akhverdyan also added, “Our annual BGD is an event that is awaited for, due to its adrenaline rushing experience and class involvement. We want to maintain a sense of normal for our students even if it looks a little different this year.”

BGD is being attended to day by day because of the constantly evolving situation. ASB is focusing on hosting a virtual event that requires minimal to no student contact. Decisions regarding BGD have been made by ASB with collaboration with Earl. The decisions will also be influenced by the district guidelines.

“Our biggest concern is students’ safety so we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can,” concluded Bystrom.