Crazy outfits, bass drops, and mosh only scratch the surface of the rowdiest night of the year. The annual Back to School Mixer was held last Friday in the Danis Field House, where hot sweaty students were packed like sardines, jumping and dancing the night away. The mixer, run by Student Council, saw an incredible turnout from both SLUH students and high school girls from around the area, tallying a record 1,400 total ticket reservations.

“Ticket sales were through the roof this year,” said Student Council president PJ Butler. “The really engaged senior class, with everyone reaching out to their friends in the class of 2020 in the other girls schools really helped to drive turnout on a grass-roots level. (STUCO) staged a huge promotional campaign on our media channels and really got the word out.”

Before the day of the mixer had arrived, the promotional hype-up video put on by Student Council had many at SLUH excited for the mixer. “‘Thrift Shop’ last year was hard to beat,” said James Brunts, Student Council media coordinator, though he was confident that this year’s video took the cake, being “exactly what we wanted it to be.”

Jack Rosenstengel, Junior Class Co-President and who was a part of filming, attributed the majority of the video’s success to Director of Security Dan Schulte’s part.

“It was a lot more entertaining for the students to see,” said Rosenstengel.

Contrary to how he acts in the trailer, Schulte was, according to Zak Stevenson, the other Junior Class Co-President, “great with it all” ….“He wanted to do anything to help (STUCO) so we had fun with it.”

In the making of the video, Stevenson also helped form the story and prides himself on being the one who put Schulte into the freezer.

“I think that this is one of the best turnouts I’ve ever seen,” said Senior Class President Ben Thomas. “ I think the video we made was put out at the right time and I think out of all the years in the past, this was probably the best year of advertising the mixer. I have never seen more people put details of the mixer on social media in the past three years, so that played a major role as well.”

To achieve this level of success, Student Council members were encouraged to post about it “anywhere we could and to get the links out,” said Zak. It also required a lot of logistics and behind the scenes work from people like  Rosenstengel and Brunts, who helped out with multiple different aspects, such as stage set up, organizing the Field House, and showing the ladies where to go.

Brunts stressed the attempts to keep the vibe of the mixer very similar to years past. “It’s like a classic,” said Brunts. “So if you don’t change much, you (still know) it’s gonna be good.” When asked about the overall turnout, Brunts said, “we didn’t mess anything up, so that’s pretty good.”

Aside from a Varsity football team transportation setback, arising late after a largely successful jamboree, many students at SLUH were happy with the mixer.

For the freshmen, this was their first experience with the BTSM. “This one was really good,” said freshman Joe Pottinger when asked about BTSM. “It should not be changed for next year.”

Freshman Caleb Schellenberg said the music was “very well DJ-ed,” and made the “the mosh pit really amazing.”

Upperclassmen shared the freshmen and sophomores’ feeling about the mixer. “It was really hectic and all around a great time” said junior Nick Storer, insisting that the mixer was a great time to be “just chillin’ with the boys and dancing.”

Seniors like Mark Indelecato also believed it to “live up to the hype,” of the BTSMs of yesteryear.