By Leila Vicinelli, Staff Writer

The day of red body paint, overflowing pans of celebratory baked goods, and spirited cries in the halls undeniably has a special place in the heart of each Winsor girl. Under the Lights has come and gone as usual for 2012, but will it ever be the same again? As many of us are aware, the construction for the new gym and arts facility is supposed to be well underway by the fall of 2013, as the work is slated to begin the day after graduation. If everything goes as planned, this leaves one question lingering: what will become of Winsor’s beloved UTL? We have been told that Winsor will find other locations for sports games and that Winsor students will be able to utilize the Simmons facilities to fulfill their P.E. requirements; however, how could UTL take place anywhere other than the fields of Winsor?

This, we can rest assured, will probably not happen, as Ms. Geromini, director of athletics, says that UTL will take place on our campus, despite construction. As of now, Ms. Geromini says the plan for UTL during the years of construction will involve a two-day celebration, turning UTL into “more of a homecoming event than it was before.” Since the soccer field will be rolled up due to the work, Winsor will only be able to use what is now the field hockey field. To accommodate this change, all the middle school teams would play on the Friday; Saturday festivities, including JV and varsity games, would follow. While these new plans for UTL are unlike anything Winsor has ever done before, Ms. Geromini believes that “UTL has been a tradition, but, moving forward, this may be something we like even more.”

Some students, like Sophie Cyker ’14, worry that, “a lot of non-athletes will lose the motivation to come if [UTL] is on Saturday, because they aren’t already at school.” Under the Lights has been and they hope will continue to be an event in which members of the entire Winsor community—athletes and nonathletes, students and teachers, Upper Schoolers and Lower Schoolers—participate. Next year we are going to face many changes in our day-to-day Winsor lives, but, despite these concerns, I think we can take comfort in the fact that we will still have UTL for all the years to come. Yes, UTL will not be the same day that we all know and love; however, the pep rally, the games, the community, and the spirit that make Under the Lights the spectacle that it is will surely remain the same.