The annual winter season pep rally was held on Jan. 27 to promote the upcoming Winter Formal dance and showcase the winter and spring sports.

The modified schedule for the school day shortened the block periods to one hour and 35 minutes each, 10 minutes shorter than normal. Wolverine+ was removed from students schedules, and the pep rally instead took place during third period with two separate groups, A and B, intended to last for one hour and 10 minutes each, though both rallies fell short of this designated time. The groups were determined by the third period class’ location, as Group A contained classes in the STEM building, portables, and the 100, 200, and 300 hallway, while Group B had everyone else.

Sania Mirarefin (11) talks about splitting the groups for two different pep rallies, “I didn’t like being split up from some of my friends or the fact that the basketball courts were half empty.”

This winter season pep rally started out with a short performance by the winter drumline. Then, the class hosts came out to introduce themselves and kick off the rally. Mariah Lewis (10) sang the national anthem.

Kaila Kelly (11), a member of the winter drumline, says, “It was a lot of fun performing for this pep rally, and I think everyone did a good job.”

The hosts revealed this year’s winter formal theme and dress up days. The 2023 Winter Formal dance will have the theme of Galactic Gala. During spirit week, students will dress up black and white for Stormtrooper day on Monday, dress the same as friends for Clone day on Tuesday, green for Baby Yoda day on Wednesday, hoodies for cloak day on Thursday, and all black for Darth Vader day on Friday.

Starting off the prepared performances for the rally, the dance team performed their small hip-hop routine for the crowd.

After this first performance, the athletics commissioners announced the varsity captains of the winter sports:

Girls’ Soccer: Emma James, Sydney Roughen, and Taryn Raibon

Boys’ Soccer: Ryan Mann, Talan Chauncey

Girls’ Basketball: Hannah Carbajal, Shanna Brown

Boys’ Basketball: Jay Fromm, Garrett Trayer

Girls’ Water Polo: Emily Lipscomb, Kloe Escobar

Boys’ Wrestling: Nathan Nichols, Vincenzo Benenati, Luciano Beneneti

Girls’ Wrestling: Roslyn Martinez, Nayely Morales

The pep rally also showcased performances from the pep squad, with both song and cheer performing their own routines. Dance Appreciation (DA) performed at the end of the pep rally to finish it off.

Some special activities held during the rally include tic tac toe on carts. This was played four times in total, two rounds between the girls’ and boys’ soccer teams and another two between song and cheer. There was also a “snowball” fight played with dodgeballs between boys’ wrestling and boys’ basketball. Two rounds of this were played as well.

Lastly, the winter formal court was announced along with voting for the senior court. The freshman royalty is Koosha Kalantar and Jaslene Massey, the sophomore royalty Tyler Vovan and Kaylin Cheung, and the junior royalty Rin Soucek and Ana Campos. The top ten seniors for winter formal court are Rishabh Bhavani, Hannah Carbajal, Jolin Cheng, Connor Billings, Aria Ford, Aidan Lee, Devraj Marolia, Casey Monahan, Marleigh Terpening, and Keely Querantes. The winners for senior king and queen will be announced at the dance.

Overall, the winter season pep rally successfully promoted the upcoming Winter Formal dance that will take place in a week on Feb. 4, 2023 and increased school spirit for the new semester and sports seasons.