Kennard-Dale celebrated the start of the school year with a pep rally on September 13. All the classes got together in the gym to show their school spirit for Homecoming Week. The freshmen were to wear yellow, the sophomores to wear blue, the juniors white and the seniors black for the Spirit Week theme of Color Wars. Every class wore their respective colors and showed their spirit for the school.
The Pep Rally started out with the Color Guard doing a performance inspired by “The Pirates of the Caribbean.” The cheerleaders also did an impressive tumbling routine that was loved by the school. Kennard-Dale Athletics Secretary, Holly Eaton, then introduced all of the fall 2024 athletes, and the players stood up when their team was called on.
Senior varsity football player Joseph Stout said, “The pep rally gets me fired up with seeing the school spirit and makes me want to win the football game later tonight even more.”
Clearly, the Pep Rally is an effective way of moving students.
Grant Leonard, English teacher turned Pep Rally announcer, then introduced the Homecoming Court, leading the school in cheering on the eight pairs of amusingly dressed Homecoming Court nominees. The Homecoming Court played their own mini games between each other.
The most amusing part of the pep rally was the tournament between each class. There were four different games that were played for the chance to win the coveted Spirit Stick. With the first game, each team had to roll on a mini cart and move themselves by a plunger; the second game tasked 2 people from each team to keep a ball on their cone while other teams tried to knock it off. The third game had the team had to work together to keep a balloon connected to each other while running to the cones and back. In the last game, everyone on the team laid down and rolled a mat with a team member on it over them to the finish.
The Juniors won the Spirit Stick, led by Evan Ethem. Ethem said,“I went to war that day taking on the seniors and teachers. I went in a boy and came out a man after leading my team to victory.”
The teachers came in second, the seniors placed third, sophomores finished fourth, and freshman – embarrassingly – placed last. The games were very competitive, with every participant wanting to win it for their class in front of the whole school.
To end the Pep Rally off, the cheerleaders recruited teachers to do a dance with them. The students and teachers did a good job dancing and having fun.
The Pep Rally is all about bringing the whole school together to have fun and compete against each other to show school spirit. Many members of the senior class agree that this year was the best Pep Rally of their high school career. On behalf of the student body, thank you to the Student Council, Mrs. Wagner, Mr. Joyce, and kudos to Kennard-Dale’s Student Council, Homecoming Court, and various student groups for putting on a Pep Rally together to make it an enjoyable afternoon for all of Kennard-Dale’s students and staff.
