All photos by Daniel Garepis-Holland.

After three days of Spirit Week activities, students showed off their spirit at today’s lunchtime rally in the Big Gym, the first one of the year.

Class chants boomed from the packed stands, divided into four sections with one per class. The activities, organized by the Associated Student Body, consisted of “Finish the Lyric,” “Hungry, Hungry Hippos,” and a balloon relay race. Juniors and seniors tied in “Finish the Lyric,” but juniors won the balloon relay race while seniors won “Hungry, Hungry Hippos.”

The rally brought seniors up to first place at 5,400 points, followed by sophomores at 4,900, juniors at 4,200, and finally freshmen at 2,700. Points are accumulated through best-dressed awards, rally activities, class chants, sportsmanship, float-building, and spirit dances.

Although the turnout was strong for the senior, sophomore, and junior classes, freshmen Kaila Leming said she was disappointed to see the lack of turnout for her class.

“There were a lot of people who didn’t cheer, so we could’ve done better,” Leming said. “Everybody just has to work up their spirit, tomorrow it’s gonna be way better.”

Junior Leah Mershon said she agreed that cheers were difficult for her class, as not a lot of people knew the cheers ahead of time.

“Our class is lacking a bit,” Mershon said. “We need to get our cheers down, but it [the rally] was really fun.”

Some, including sophomore Lucy Griffin, said the event was chaotic. Griffin said the sign-up process for game participation was confusing and slightly unfair.

“We [sophomores] should have been able to sign up for the games beforehand,” Griffen said. “Instead, random people went up.”

Although there were no rallies on the first two days of Spirit Week, Junior Watson Koegler said the first rally of the year was still memorable and an overall exciting experience.

“I wish we had a rally Monday and Tuesday, but today I liked how it was organized,” Koegler said. “Nobody was really messing around too much.”

Mershon agreed that this year’s rallies were better than last year’s, in part due to last year being the return from Covid.

“It was pretty well organized, especially compared to last year,” Mershon said. “Last year was kinda all over the place, cause it was right after Covid.”

Senior Priya Gupta said she felt students were not solely focused on the competition aspect of the rally and instead prioritized having fun with their fellow peers.

“We as a student body had very good sportsmanship because we cheered on the freshman,” Gupta said. “We just created this energy that was just super fun.”

Bringing the third day of Spirit Week to a close, Principal Brent Kline left students with a final announcement during today’s PRIME that reminded everyone to maintain good sportsmanship as this week continues.

“Today I’m proud to be your principal,” Kline said. “And I’m excited to see what you do the rest of the week.”

The next rally will be at lunch tomorrow on the football field. The theme is generations: freshmen as babies, sophomores as teeny boppers/greasers, juniors as professionals, and seniors as senior citizens.