By: Morgan Castaneda
Redwood and Mt. Whitney’s ASB Presidents and directors for the 2022-2023 school year express major excitement about the annual Cowhide rivalry that’s going on its 67th year.
Cowhide is a longstanding event that holds many old traditions within the course of a very spirited week for both Redwood and Mt. Whitney High School.
Photo courtesty of Cosic
Ms. Cosic is Mt. Whitney’s Activities Director, who says that Cowhide is a major football game where Mt. Whitney and Redwood fight “to win/keep the coveted Cowhide, which will then hang in their gym until the following year.”
Ms. Cosic also notes that “we are celebrating our 67th annual Cowhide this year.”
Mrs. Aston is Redwood’s Activities Director, mentioning that along with the sports aspect, Cowhide is “also a time for Redwood to show it’s unified front as well as alumni to kind of get the opportunity to [represent] Redwood one more time and get excited about it every year.”
She says that it’s always “the last [football] game of the season,” and that “it’s really just a great rivalry.”
Photo courtesy of author, Castaneda
Alex Elick, ’23 is the ASB President for Mt. Whitney High School and says that there are many responsibilities of his school’s ASB such as “[decorating] the school with lots of posters and cow spots all over, [as well as to] make games and dress up days and a rally.”
Elick also notes that “some traditions Mt. Whitney participates in are the Kiss The Cow fundraiser for different charities each year, [having] dress up days to keep up spirits, and have a competition of sorts against Redwood at Sally’s Hot Dogs.”
Savannah Torres, ’23 is the ASB President for Redwood High School and notes that during Cowhide Week, there are also many events that are set up by Redwood’s ASB to get students excited and involved before the big game.
Torres says that some of Redwood’s traditions include, “the annual carnival, football players participate in [lunch time activities], the Taylor’s Hot Dog annual competition [where] Whitney and Redwood students come out and participate [with] cheer, dance, and ASB out there for the hot dog eating competition with the football boys.”
Photo courtesy of Elick
During the weekend before Cowhide Week, both ASB’s get together to decorate their campuses to prepare for the students’ arrival on Monday.
Mrs. Aston notes that to keep their responsibilities in an orderly fashion, “[ASB] always gets into different committees to make sure that we’re covering different aspects of what’s going on.” This includes aspects such as campus and the Mineral King Bowl decoration, lunchtime activities, and more.
In addition to Redwood’s preparations, Ms. Cosic says that “[Mt. Whitney has] been collaborating with Football, Band, Cheer, Dance, Film, FFA, Link Crew, Redwood ASB and many other groups on campus to engage as many students as possible this week!”
Prior to the school year, all ASB Presidents in Visalia along with Presidents from high schools all over California participated in the California Association of Directors of Activities located on the campus of UC Santa Barbara.
Photo courtesy of author, Castaneda
Both Torres and Elick attended this event, where Torres describes it “as a bunch of schools all over California and their ASB Executive Boards that were put into these different groups which were called counsels, and [she] was with 28 other ASB Presidents.”
As the ASB Presidents from all 4 high schools in Visalia participated in this event, Elick notes that “it really brought the officer group at [his] ASB together and [they] became more united and it really brought the Presidents of all the 4 high schools in Visalia together.”
Though excited about the big Cowhide game, Elick says that “it kinda sucks that it’s coming up so soon because it is sadly [his] last one.”
As an annual tradition, both ASB Presidents hold a bet with each other in correspondence with the game’s results. This year, both presidents have agreed to make the losing team dye their hair the opposing school’s colors.
Tags: clubs & lifestyles, cowhide, Morgan Castaneda, Mt Whitney, rangers, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, rhs, visalia ca