In a world filled with different hues and shapes, even the most simple child knows what color belongs where in a coloring book. A pumpkin is orange, water is blue, an egg is white, but what is the color of a Spartan?

Almost every team and school has some sort of secondary color to represent themselves. For Michigan State it is green and white, and for Notre Dame it is blue and gold. It is widely known and accepted that the color of a Spartan at least starts with the color blue. The color can be seen dawned upon the marching band, the hallways, even the homepage of the Spartan Shield; yet, it is still quite unclear what the second color is. “I know a Spartan is blue, but there seems to be a kind of identity crisis with our other color. I think its some shade of grey or silver, but I’ve gone here my whole life and couldn’t tell you.” Is what senior Cassidy Kilcoin stated when asked her opinion on the district’s second color. Needing more information on what the rest of the school thought, I posted a survey on Twitter.

I asked my followers what they thought the color was, besides blue. The options were white, grey, silver, and other. With 58 responses, none could seem to agree. Scoring highest was the color grey at 50%, second highest was silver at 38%, and the rest of the responses were split between white and other. A school that preaches its student involvement has a system where their “involved” students can’t even tell you how their school is represented. It should be a simple two colors that any student can ramble off the top of their head and yet, that is not the case because the school is a mess when it comes to design. “Come on Spartans put up a fight! You have to rock with the blue and jam with the white!” is what the sideline cheerleaders chanted at the senior basketball game this last Friday. Not only is a “jam with the white” a concerning phrase, but no one knows where they are even getting “white” from.

Everyone understands the blue part, but when you put cheerleaders on the field with silver pom-poms, have the band play half-time with black plumes, and send the basketball players out in a light grey, one can’t help but be confused.

Through all this confusion and unruly representation, the real answer, of course, is grey. “It seems unfair that the Bettendorf Bulldogs get black and gold, but all we get is blue and grey.” senior Robbie Williams stated. Pleasant Valley certainly needs to get their act together if they are going to ever represent their district properly. While colors are just a small detail in the mess that is Pleasant Valley, it is a detail nonetheless. Maybe those behind what is “Spartan Pride” will learn how to fill in a coloring book properly before taking on the bigger tasks in the future.