Winchester Thurston – a place where great minds and great leaders create even greater clubs. But, not all of our 1000+ clubs can be as popular as Plaid and Student Council. Some of our clubs are so under the radar that you might have never heard of them. Are they fronts to get into college or secret societies only the coolest of cool at WT can be part of? Whatever they are, here are 6 of WT’s best underground clubs.

6. Taxidermy Club

To be honest with you, I’m not sure who created this club but every now and then I hear rumors of meetings that only occur every C week. Sold as “a club where students can find their true creative musings,” Taxidermy Club offers a cult-like social circle of WT students who have come to explore the arts in ways not offered in the confines of a classroom. Admirable, if you ask me. 

5. Bigfoot Club

Rumored to be founded by the Dever sisters and advised by the history department (big question mark there), Bigfoot Club is entirely devoted to hunting down the hairy mythical creature inhabiting the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Due to the club’s top secret status, its meeting times follow the moon’s cycle and all communication to club members is through messenger pigeons. The club’s main goals are to change the school’s mascot to Bigfoot (because “WT Bears” is very unoriginal) and find Bigfoot one day. I hope they achieve both of their goals. 

4. Laryngitis 

Laryngitis is yet another club lost to the test of time. Once WT’s go-to satirical newspaper, Laryngitis is now just an archive of dusty newspapers in Ms. McDermott’s room. If you’re ever feeling goofy just pick up an edition of Laryngitis – most of its humor has aged well, others not so much. Now Laryngitis is just part of WT’s coolest underground club, Voices, but there is something so charming about satire named after the inflammation of the vocal box. Where has good high school humor gone?

3. WT Marching Band

WT Marching Band is the official marching band of the bears! An inside source (Mr. Krause, a saxophone player in the band) stated, “As of now, WT’s marching band is on strike until further notice–that notice being any existence of a school football team. Until that happens, we will lie in wait, rehearsing underground and anticipating our moment.” For now, all we can do is hope that they bring the much needed school spirit to our spring sports even if an agreement on the strike is never made.

2. The New Music Club

Founded in 2006 by Mac Miller (when he was at WT for one year) and advised by Dr. Seward, The New Music Club is WT’s coolest club second to Voices. Students discussed and shared the newest music while Dr. Seward discussed the classics of music. With such a legacy, it’s a shock that this club hasn’t been reignited. I think it’s time for The New Music Club to make a comeback.

1. Voices

Voices is small but mighty, and maybe not super underground but definitely cool. It’s been the official student newspaper of WT since 1971, and even though its activity has been sporadic throughout the years (making it sort of underground), it is the voice of the WT community. Meetings are every Thursday B-week during community time in room 204, where a tiny team of WT experts collaborate to be the informants of the community. As Quincy Sauter ‘26 said, “I never hear anyone talk about their Voices articles and then all of a sudden Voices has a new drop. It’s like this mystery that only appears once a month.”