This year, the THS Student Organization held its first Fall Pep Rally since its two-year hiatus due to COVID-19. Following the success of the Fall Pep Rally, the S.O. decided to plan a Winter Pep Rally to wrap up the 2022 school year before winter break begins. A pep rally is an event that showcases all of the sports of that season. The sports that are participating this winter season are basketball, swimming, hockey, track, cheerleading, and wrestling. Additionally, there will be a special performance from the school’s orchestra. THS students will all either be participating in or viewing the Pep Rally. However, many students are unaware of what really goes on behind the scenes of setting it up. 

Our students are achieving new goals every day, and school pep rallies shine the spotlight specifically on athletic achievements. Mr. Morrison went to the S.O. with the idea of hosting a Winter Pep Rally to honor both Girls’ Varsity Volleyball and the THS Marching Band for winning their respective state competitions. Ayla Uram (’24), the Junior Board of Education Representative, stated, “The S.O. was very excited that we were going to have a Winter Pep Rally for the first time in a very long time!” She recalled the process of planning the momentous occasion: “The first thing we did was meet and plan a tug-of-war game and a three-point shooting contest. Next, we had a meeting with the captains of each winter sport and had them fill out a form with songs they wanted to use and describe what their team was going to be doing for the pep rally.” She also emphasized the importance of “getting people excited by planning spirit days on the week of the event to advertise the pep rally as much as we can!” 

Gia Shin (’23), Secretary of the S.O. and Orchestra Concertmaster, hopes that the pep rally will inspire students, especially underclassmen, to get involved in school sports and extracurriculars. She said, “Planning was really fun and went smoothly. Now that we got to experience the Fall Pep Rally, we knew how the flow of things for the Winter Pep Rally would go. We’re also planning on having one for the spring possibly. The orchestra never gets a public performance at the school, it’s really good exposure for Philharmonic Orchestra because people are very talented here.”

Mr. Hubbard, the advisor of the S.O. and one of the main planners of the pep rally, explained how the pep rally is set up in further detail. “There is a lot that goes into planning a pep rally. Firstly, we have to choose a time and day that is least interruptive to the students’ and teachers’ schedules. Next, we have to decide the content of the pep rally. Traditionally, they have been around sports, but we are trying to find out how we can include as many of our awesome programs as we can.” This is how the S.O. works to plan events like the pep rally while also making sure to accommodate the schedules of the students and teachers. Mr. Hubbard also explained the importance of the roles of the emcees. “Usually, the bulk of the pep rally is planned out by the S.O., S.O. advisor, and emcees. Emcees write the scripts and the S.O. plans and facilitate the events.” But that’s not all. On the day of the pep rally, the sports teams will run out to a song picked out by each respective sports team captain. This part of the pep rally requires “planning a meeting with the teams’ captains, getting them to find and submit songs in .mp3 format, and then making sure those songs are appropriate.”

All things considered, the students and staff behind this Winter Pep Rally, along with the athletes and musicians participating, deserve an immense pat on the back for their efforts to boost school spirit and recognize our school’s amazing accomplishments. Go Tigers!