While Virginia Beach high schools share common ground in academics and athletics, each school has developed its own distinctive traditions over the years, defining student experience and fostering community pride. From detailed homecoming displays to cultural celebrations, these special traditions showcase how schools foster a sense of identity.
Homecoming week stands out as a unifying tradition across the city, but schools interpret it differently. Isabella Szajnoga, senior class president at Cox High School, notes that their homecoming parade remains a key annual event accompanied by the school’s emphasis on athletic achievement.
At Princess Anne High School, homecoming hallways have evolved into an art form. “I feel like PA goes much above and beyond,” explains Maren Baxley, SCA president at PA. At Princess Anne, the preparation for homecoming hallways begins weeks in advance, with each grade working together for hours to create detailed displays that judges evaluate on the morning before the Homecoming dance.
Mitch Lyon, Princess Anne High School Class of 2026 president, emphasizes that PA does homecoming “the best in the beach.” Beyond the hallways, Princess Anne has formed other traditions, including Powderpuff football, Senior Toga Day, and Junior Shore, where the Junior Class kicks off summer together at the beach.
Bayside High School combines tradition with community involvement through their Homecoming bonfire and parade. Taylor Beacham, Bayside High School senior class president, explains that the bonfire starts the spirit of the week, getting students excited for the homecoming game and dance. “During the parade, Haygood Road shuts down as each class showcases a themed float and clubs proudly walk alongside them,” Beacham says. “It’s a lively celebration of Bayside pride and the diverse organizations that make our school special.”
According to Dhanvi Patel, Bayside High School’s SCA President, no Bayside event would be complete without the Spirit Shovel. She adds that the shovel has an unusual origin story: it was discovered on the side of Interstate 264 and adopted by a former SCA president. Painted in Bayside’s red and yellow colors, the shovel quickly became a treasured symbol of school tradition. “Today, it travels to every major event, passed from student to student as a reminder of our shared spirit,” Patel notes. “It’s even earned its own Instagram account, proving just how loved it is within our community.” Similar to the shovel, Ocean Lakes incorporates their dolphin mascot into every homecoming assembly.
Several schools have developed traditions that extend into the Virginia Beach community. Ocean Lakes hosts multiple festivals throughout the year that welcome local families. Reese Clemente, a senior at Ocean Lakes, describes Finsgiving as a Thanksgiving celebration where clubs bring food to share and students participate in karaoke and games. The school also hosts Fin Fest, inspired by the Something in the Water festival, featuring live music from Ocean Lakes students. “I think that’s a great way that we come together but also get back to the community,” Clemente says.
Bayside High School’s Marlinfest in May follows a similar model. “Marlin Fest is one of Bayside’s signature events, bringing together the Bayside and Haygood communities for a fun, vibrant day of festivities,” Patel explains. “Because it’s open to the public, it naturally fosters a strong sense of unity, pride, and care within the Bayside family.”
The school has also introduced Track or Treat during the Halloween season. “Bayside clubs and associations set up tables around the track and hand out candy to families,” says Patel. “It provides a safe, welcoming space for younger children to enjoy trick-or-treating, while also giving Bayside students the chance to learn about different clubs, activities, and ways to get involved on campus.” This year, their senior class added a haunted hallway to the festivities.
Community service traditions vary widely among schools, reflecting different causes. First Colonial High School’s gifted program has established a strong collaboration with the Angel Tree program. According to Kanishka Bhardwaj, a First Colonial senior, the school’s National Honor Society (NHS) organizes Seatack Winterfest, spending a full day with younger students at Seatack, an elementary school near the area. The NHS also collaborates with local firefighters for the Allington feast, supporting underserved community members.
Cox High School has involved their students in community service through their “#lunchbag” initiative. Szajnoga explains that the program is run through their SCA in January. “We get clubs from all around the school to reach a goal of collecting things like bags of chips, water bottles, granola bars, and sandwiches,” she says. “Each club gets a table and works on putting the bags together for a few hours after school. We donate the lunches and extra ingredients to the Church of the Ascension Food Bank.” Ocean Lakes High School sells pink-out shirts during football season, with proceeds benefiting the Free Range Sisters Foundation for breast cancer research.
Princess Anne High School established Love Run, a collaborative fundraising event held at Thalia Elementary School to raise money for CHKD (Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters). While the event has expanded citywide with participation from Cox and Kellam, Baxley emphasizes that Princess Anne takes pride in managing the behind-the-scenes operations and donating to a good cause each year.
Tallwood High School holds traditions reflecting its diverse academy population. The Global Café culture club hosts events around twice monthly, where different culture clubs or student groups present slideshows and share dishes from their heritage.
“It’s like little activities for us as students to participate within our community,” explains Vivian Lea, a Tallwood senior. Their year ends with a large cultural café where all participating groups present together.
Cox High School celebrates their school’s history in a different way, with their school motto simply being “tradition.” Szajnoga notes that many teachers are Cox alumni who returned to teach, creating continuity across generations. The school’s Falcon Forum brings in guest speakers focused on community growth. “The theme for this year’s Falcon Forum was about growth in our community,” Szajnoga says. “We had speakers ranging from parents of Cox kids, Cox alumni, and to end it all we hired a motivational speaker to teach us about looking through different perspectives and understanding others.” This year’s speaker at Cox was interactive, making the school-wide assembly feel like a pep rally. The event concludes with an invite-only leadership forum, bringing in schools from around Virginia Beach for a workshop session with the same speaker to learn about other schools and ways to grow their communities.
Daily and weekly traditions help maintain school spirit throughout the year. Ocean Lakes holds six major assemblies annually, including fall, winter, and spring spirit assemblies, plus homecoming, founders week, and recognition events. Anna Daubenspeck, SCA vice president, describes the intensive planning required and highlights a beloved ritual: Coach Booth’s “I Am Somebody” speech, where the entire student body participates in a call-and-response that grows progressively louder. “It’s just something that everybody looks forward to every assembly,” Daubenspeck says.
Tallwood adds energy to game days through their Spirit Turkey tradition around Thanksgiving, where the teacher whose box collects the most canned goods must wear an inflatable turkey costume. On home football game days, the band walks through the school playing music while cheerleaders follow behind before the first bell rings. At pep rallies, the mascot rollerskates around the gym.
Ocean Lakes has established what Daubenspeck calls an exceptional student section at football games, maintaining both enthusiasm and respect. The school also hosts Fin Feud in their schola, where class officers compete in a Family Feud-style game.
While Virginia Beach students may cheer for different mascots and wear different colors, these traditions reveal a shared commitment to school pride, community engagement, and creating experiences that define the high school years.
