By: Gavin Shulz, '21
Pep Rallies are a special part of a school’s culture and generate a large amount of school spirit. Pep Rallies give students the opportunity to show their school spirit, let loose, and partake in the camaraderie that is HC. This gives the school a fun and exciting environment ahead of a big event. Pep Rallies give students opportunities to showcase their spirit and pride for their school.
During these pep rallies, teachers and students face off in many different games and challenges. These games usually coincide with the team game that weekend. If it is a baseball pep rally then it will be a baseball related challenge. These events are mostly during sporting events because it is necessary to have a big turn-out for the game and what better way to gather a large crowd turnout than to have a big pep rally beforehand?! Pep Rallies encourage students and faculty to get just as excited about the event as the team and to show up and support the team. Having a large crowd does help team morale and plays a key part in the game. Holy Cross senior quarterback John Wooton had this to say about school pep rallies, “I feel if we did not have pep rallies, our stands would not be as crowded. It is important that our team has a crowd at our games, because we would rather play in front of a huge crowd than no crowd at all.”
Pep rallies are also a way for every person in the school to show school spirit for other teams that don’t get as much recognition as other sports throughout the year – especially for our middle school teams. Taking the opportunity to showcase all teams of all grade levels to the entire school and showing spirit, encourages student athletes to keep up the good work and promotes other spirited opportunities for the students and faculty to support. After a pep rally, students leave with energy and motivation, likely channeling that emotion into the big sporting even that weekend.
Holy Cross senior Tight-End, Cole Trosclair, feels Pep Rallies are important saying, “It gives gameday a more excited feeling for us athletes and our fans. There is nothing better than Friday Night Lights with your teammates and fans supporting you, but it all starts with a solid pep rally.”