Putting aside the controversy caused by Tuesday night’s egg incident, students came together in the traditional after-school rally on Friday, Oct. 30 on the Paly track, marking the end of Spirit Week.
The rally featured the usual after-school activities, which includes a tug-of-war contest, a hula hoop relay, the presentation of class floats, and dance performances the staff, the cheerleaders, and each class.
The after-school rally met the overall expectations of students, according to junior Marie Furter.
“I was looking forward to the dances, and everyone did such a great job, especially the juniors in their gorilla suits,” Furter said. “It was really good overall, but the freshmen have a lot to learn [about dances].
Sophomore class president Uma Veerappan shares Furter’s views regarding the rally and the class performances.
“The class dances are great every year,” Veerappan said. “It’s great to see what new things the classes incorporate into their dances. Our class worked extremely hard on the float, and I think it turned out great.”
The festivities began with the cheer-off competitions between the classes, each trying to collect some last-minute points before the activities, class float presentations and dances began. Despite everything that happened this week, including the Tuesday night egg incident and the fire alarm disrupting Thursday’s rally, the classes still cheered to the best of their ability.
After the class cheer-offs, the first activity was the tug-of-war competition. Each class selected four boys and four girls to participate and alternated the order of the line-up by gender.
The seniors battled against the freshmen in the first round and won, securing them a position in the final round. Meanwhile, the sophomores, despite taking an initial lead, fell to the juniors in a close match, leaving the sophomores and freshmen to compete for third place. The sophomores won, leaving the freshmen in last place and the sophomores in third. In the final round, the seniors dominated over the juniors, securing their first place title with the juniors following in second.
Following the tug-of-war contest was the staff spirit dance, which was a version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller dance. As a tribute to the late pop star, all the staff members who participated wore a single white glove while they danced to Jackson’s 80s classic.
The cheerleaders gave their own performance afterward, complete with dancing, cheering and a wide variety of stunts.
Next was the hula hoop relay, in which six boys and girls from each class lined up by alternating gender and tried to send a hula hoop down the line so that every person would step through the hoop and back without unlatching hands.
The first round pitted the seniors versus the freshmen, in which the freshmen came back at the seniors for the previous tug-of-war contest and secured a victory. The sophomores competed against the juniors and won, leaving the juniors and seniors to compete for third. The juniors beat out the seniors, and in the final match, the sophomores beat the freshmen, securing the sophomores as the overall winners for the hula-hoop relay.
The conclusion of the rally activities led to the highlight of the after school rally: the class floats and dances. The freshmen performed first, showing off their construction worker-themed float while displaying advanced dance moves and stunts that were incorporated into their spirit dance.
The sophomores, who had a “Super Powered” theme, cleverly incorporated theatrics into their spirit dance, which showed the hard work put into the float.
Juniors, with their Go Bananas theme, went for the comedy, which included four junior boys dressed in gorilla suits and a giant banana suit, but still managed to include an array of stunts in the dance.
Seniors performed last, showing off their experience from the past in not only their float, which featured a giant slot machine that spelled out “2010” when the lever was pulled, but also the dance choreography. The choreography featured not only the traditional modern dances, but also a bit of Bhangra (Indian dance) led by senior Jujhaar Singh as well as some stomping and clapping, making the dance unique when compared to other class dances.
In the end, the sophomores won first place for the class float, followed by the juniors, seniors and freshmen. The sophomores also secured a victory in their class dance, followed by the seniors, freshmen and juniors.
The final scores and and rankings of the classes has been finalized with the seniors in first place with a total of 3505 points, followed by the juniors with 3475 points and the sophomores and freshmen in third and fourth with 3332 points and 1847 points, respectively. The scores were announced at the homecoming football game against Los Gatos High School at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30 out by the Paly track, which concluded Spirit Week 2009.