This past Tuesday, North High held its first ever winter pep rally. The event, designed to raise school spirit during the winter season, was similar to its fall counterpart, featuring walkouts from the school’s winter varsity sports teams and performances from Cheer and Kilties.
The event also featured several games and competitions designed to both rally school spirit from the audience and earn the winning grades points for the upcoming Battle of the Classes competition in February. Box stacking, won by the senior class, and games of both student and teacher musical chairs were among the many festivities.
“I thought it was really exciting that a lot of new ideas were tried out. My favorite event was the musical chairs,” junior Jay Wu said.
Like the fall event, the winter pep rally featured walkouts from each of the school’s varsity sports teams for the winter season. The stars of the show were the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams, putting on entertaining performances to rally school spirit for their games against South High. Alongside them were winter track and field, swimming, and fencing, among other teams.
Each team walked out through an orange and blue banner raised by the cheer team, and each added their own twist to the event. For example, the fencing team hosted a mock bout, and the boys and girls basketball teams put on a display of their skills. Following the walkouts were exciting performances from Kilties and the cheer team to wrap up the occasion, which overall proved to be a great display of school spirit.
“As an athlete, I felt the event as a whole raised a lot of spirit for our school’s various teams, and was a lot of fun. I hope we can keep this up as a tradition,” junior Momchil Yanchev said.
Amongst the festivities, one of the main goals of the event was to raise spirit and excitement for the upcoming Battle of the Classes, bringing an end to a 7-day spirit week where participants could win battle points for their grade. Following the pep rally, the senior class remains in the lead, with the other grades closely following. This continues attempts across the school year to establish the Battle of the Classes as an all-year affair rather than a single-day event in order to prioritize school spirit in the community. During pep rally, students were tested on which grade could cheer the loudest for battle points. The senior class had the loudest cheer, an eliciting display that elevated school spirit and raised excitement for the event.
“This is the first year I’ve really felt excited about Battle. The last two years I didn’t care about the event, but over this year and especially during the pep rally I’ve been rooting for my grade a lot more,” junior Jason Wang said.
The event was preceded by a spirit week in which North High students participated in various themed days. On Tuesday, the theme was blackout, with students showing out in all black to rival South’s whiteout event. Alongside the festivities were trivia games and speeches from the Morgan’s Message committee, representing an organization supporting mental health advocacy in athletics.
Overall, the winter pep rally was a successful showing of school spirit, a chance for the school’s various teams to connect with the community, and the beginning of what will hopefully remain a North High tradition for years to come.
