It’s strange to learn that the star swimmer bleaches their hair and the champion lacrosse player has lucky game day shorts. Seattle Prep has some pretty weird traditions that most outside the school do not know.

After the Drama Club’s first performance of the year, members give a farewell gift. A symbolization to the beginning of the end. The club members break off a piece of the play’s setting whether it’s a painted piece of cardboard backdrop, a fake prop, or something else entirely. Actors chose the prized gift, giving it to their newest members, as a memento of their first time on the stage.

Another strange tradition is the bleached blond hair of the boy’s swim team. When competing in District State and Metro swim races the whole team dyes their hair. The reasons for this colorful tradition are unknown.

But we do know why Seattle Prep baseball players carry Peppa Pig backpacks and dress up as trash cans? This tradition has it’s origins in the major leagues. For a rookie’s first year in the big leagues, coming to school with new pink Dora the Explorer or Peppa Pig backpack is rite of passage.  Making it to the top isn’t easy but these players make it fun!

But baseball isn’t the only sport with odd traditions, Seattle Prep Boys’ lacrosse also has some wacky ones. The most famous is the lucky jeans. Senior players wear the jeans for their last game of the year. Lacrosse players second strange tradition centers around a special shovel. The team stands in a circle around the shovel after a victorious game. The MVP player of the game stands in the middle of the circle with the shovel half-buried in the ground. They lift the shovel up into the air…and place it back in the ground.  That’s the whole ceremony. They use the same shovel every time. Why they do it is as much as a mystery as the other bizarre beliefs.

Nobody knows how all these traditions came about but what we do know is that they hold a special place in Prep’s growing culture.