For Taryn (Brinson) League `91, there's a thorough line from her time as a student, longtime teacher, department chair, and current cheer coach and Pup Pack moderator. It's the shared spirit of the Bullpup heartbeat. She reminds us that each of us carries a part of it. Read on for her reflection. 
 
Envision a cart. Carts are often pulled or pushed by a team. A cart also multiplies what a person can do alone. In the same way, magis invites us to expand our capacity — to bring creativity, commitment, and love into our work and relationships. It’s a reminder that magis isn’t about being the star of the show — it’s about collective effort, shared responsibility, and showing up for one another. Magis stretches our imagination, our time commitments, and, occasionally, our lower back muscles.

Opinions come and go ... about our community, about me, about each other —but the heartbeat of Gonzaga Prep is steady: a shared vision and joyful energy that keep us moving forward together. There’s something magical — and maybe a little chaotic — about Gonzaga Prep Blue White Full of Fight school spirit that unites us all.

So yes, I’m the cart lady. I’ve accepted it. I am she. I own it. I even have two carts — one for PUP Pack and one for cheer — because apparently one wasn’t enough to contain my delusion that I can “carry more.”



So here’s what’s inside the carts. Bear with me. About 20 cheer spirit signs including one for each of the seven letters in GONZAGA, several weekly theme-painted paper signs (which are always works of art), glitter (lots), megaphones, one giant crowd pom, a med bag, feminine hygiene, wrist tape, Band-Aids, extra socks, deodorant, hand chalk for stunting, gummy worms (critical), water, a selfie stick, more glitter (approximately a Costco sized lifetime supply), a “Dawg of the Game” construction hat that showed up this year, a giant Gonzaga Prep flag that has more parts than IKEA furniture, charging cords, portable speaker, extension cord, laminated cheer list, hand warmers, rain ponchos, this year’s spirit paddle still sticky from its paint job in August, theme items like minion googly eyes, blue painter’s tape and zip ties for hanging signs, garbage bags, eco friendly cornstarch smoke spray cans, hair ties, my reading glasses, gum, my iPhone, and did I mention glitter? There’s so much glitter.

That’s what makes the game. Sure, it’s absolutely the players and the coaches and the plays and strategy — but it’s also the band, the crowd, the anthem singers, the cheerleaders, the trainers, the water runners, the media, and the ticket takers. It’s everyone. Everyone has a role, and together we create the “hum” as Fr. JK so beautifully calls it — the sound of the Holy Spirit moving through our community (and occasionally through the loudspeakers). It’s our shared Bullpup spirit heartbeat.

So yes, I’m the cart lady. I help bring the blue and white spirit — but I’m not the center. The hum is. Our kids crave connection…even when they act like they don’t. They want to belong. They might not all play sports or cheer, but EVERY SINGLE one of them has a place at the table. They make the hum. So I’ll happily keep rolling my carts (and probably pull a muscle at my age) to help make that happen.

When seniors Kelton Doolittle and Cece Morris came to me about reigniting PUP Pack last year, they told me they wanted to make memories and build bridges — not walls. They wanted the student section to connect with cheer and band, not compete. Radical idea, I know. They didn’t just want the “popular kid front row crew” - they wanted everyone included and engaged. And today we’ve got 31 pack members who span every corner of campus — the basketball player designing signs with the Knowledge Bowl kid, the ASB member trading playlists with the football player, the soccer star making social media posts with the campus ministry kid.

This senior class has really turned the tide, and their collective growth has been inspiring. It’s not perfect—it’s a work in progress … but each week gets even better. Cheer is evolving, too. We’re shaking off old traditions and learning new ways of proceeding in a new cheer world. Moving away from old traditions isn’t easy, but it’s been healthy and necessary. Growth can be messy (and a little glittery), but it’s good, holy work.

And social media? Believe it or not, that’s part of the magic. It’s their native language. It’s the language they all speak fluently (sometimes more fluently than English). Gina Pinnock and the school are huge supporters of this, as they launched their voices with cheer and Pup Pack. When they use their voices, their graphics, their photos, and cross-post each other’s stuff — that’s a beautiful reflection of this community. That’s the hum in digital form. And it takes everyone — Dave McKenna `88 running extension cords like a stage tech at Coachella, Joe Tombari `83 giving ESPN-level play-by-play, teams cleaning up and tossing trash bags into Dan Glatt’s truck, Jeff Christopher quietly doing approximately 27 jobs at once, Paul Manfred saying yes to a pre game horse still one of my favorite sentences, and Jack Smale heroically wielding a snow shovel for its aftermath. And it’s Matt Boyle taking this photo that tells a thousand-word story. Man, I just love these kids and this community.

We all have a cart. Some are literal, some are metaphorical, but all of them help us carry more than we could alone. What’s in your cart? Each of us carries something that makes Gonzaga Prep hum. And as my good friend and teacher Molly McFarland `94 says, “Two trips is defeat.” So yes — Magis is glitter and grit. It’s teamwork held together with wrist tape and gummy worms and a selfie stick. It’s going a little further than what’s easy or expected. It’s carrying more together.

We make the holy spirit hum. Go Pups!