School spirit
Students share their opinions on pep rallies
Pep rallies are a seasonal event to bring recognition to the sports teams and unite the school, and the first pep rally of the school year took place on Sept. 13.
Junior Annika Johnson believes they “are fun but a lot of the kids in the audience don’t really care about it.”
“I wish we had more time for the pep rallies to do more activities,” Johnson said. “It was okay being recognized at the pep rally. The golf team doesn’t get a lot of attention, so that was good to get recognition.”
The teams that were recognized were boys and girls swim, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls golf, football, volleyball and Special Olympics. Sophomore Lily Frierson plays for the volleyball team and got acknowledged, along with her teammates, at the event.
“I actually really enjoy pep rallies, but only when they are in the gym,” Frierson said. “I have fun and I like seeing all of the teams and watching the performances. The volleyball team being recognized made me feel proud.”
The Danceros and the cheer teams both performed at the pep rally as well as the band. Freshman Marshall Apple attended his first pep rally and said he had “mixed emotions” about the event.
“It was a good opportunity to hang out with friends after a long day of school, but I disliked the fact that they couldn’t include everyone in a game, so it was boring for some people,” Apple said. “If there was something I would change, I would include more people in the activities. I was hoping for something more inclusive but, overall, it was a good experience.”
E-board organizes three pep rallies during the year, one for each season. Senior Haroon Farooqi attended his last first pep rally of his high school career.
“The pep rally this year was pretty good for the most part,” Farooqi said. “There’s nothing in particular that I would change. I have nothing against the pep rallies.”
E-board president and senior Preslie Price co-hosted the pep rally along with senior Amelia Spicola.
“I love pep rallies; they are really fun, and I enjoy celebrating our school spirit,” Price said. “Being a speaker at the pep rally made it so fun. I loved being able to commentate and help get the crowd pumped up for games and activities.”
The next pep rally will be in winter.
More thoughts:
“It was fun; I was in the toilet paper thing… we lost, but it was fun, I messed up a lot but it was fun wrapping up Mr. Thoreson, he’s my science teacher.” Freshman Josh Chung
“I think it’s really fun to see like what sports are in session and to have the whole school together and to cheer everybody on. Everybody on my team is really, really cool and I just love being friends with them.” Freshman Penelope Markowski
“I love how fun they are and all the games we play with the kids. We spent time brainstorming games and deciding what was going to make all the kids happy... right now, my favorite part is just the atmosphere. Everyone is screaming, everyone is having fun.” Junior Matthew Maney
“Pep rallies are just a really fun time to get hype and get loud with some of your friends... we kind facilitate all that goes on and all the games that are played and we run them as there here. I don’t get to participate anymore, but I wish I did. I participated in the past and it’s a lot of fun.” Senior David Tuohy
“Pep rallies are very fun and I like going to them. We had a lot of discussions in our E-board class and we all gave our opinion... my favorite part of the pep rally is the drum line performance.” Junior William Hubbard