After two weeks of fast and furious voting, we have a 2020 winner for the most school spirit in Ocean County, a school that also just achieved something that no other has done since we started running these competitions.

2020 marks the 5th year for both our spring Mascot Madness competition as well as our fall School Spirit competition, and while we've had repeat winners before, this is the first time that we've had the same school win both in the same year.

That being said...

Congratulations to Toms River High School South!

The Toms River High School South Indians were our first repeat Mascot Madness winners, having taken the title in both 2017 and 2020, and now become the first school to win both Mascot Madness and School Spirit in the same year.

The pride runs deep at TR South, who handily breezed to the School Spirit championship, with more than a third of all of the votes that were cast in the past week.

The top three shook out like this:

• 1) Toms River High School South
• 2) Toms River High School East
• 3) Manchester Township High School

And here's how the full field of 10 finalists finished:

It's always one of my favorite parts of my job when I see communities come together to cheer on their schools, especially this year when students, teachers, parents, and communities as a whole have been facing challenges that none of us have ever had to deal with before.

My heartfelt gratitude, as always, goes out to everybody who took part in this year's Ocean County School Spirit Competition!