A senior member of the Varsity cheer squad has started a petition to get the winter Homecoming pep rally moved to the school day following the announcement it would be held outside of school hours. 

Senior Bella Lane initiated the petition to move the rally, scheduled as the first event of Homecoming week at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 31. 

“I’m a cheerleader so I’ve been in the pep rally every single year we’ve had one, both fall and winter,” Lane said. “I love performing in front of everybody and it gets people hyped up for the games.” 

Traditionally, students get out of class at some point during the week for the pep rallies, which are usually in the North Gym. After pep rallies were canceled completely last year due to COVID and the Fall 2021 Homecoming pep rally was at Bishop Stadium on a Wednesday evening, the increase in COVID cases and the omicron variant sweeping through the school and community currently led to administration requiring the event to be held outside of school hours to prevent crowding in the gym.

“The way we did the pep rally in the fall was successful,” Athletic Director Mike Marsh said. “Not that the ones before weren’t, we just felt like it was an opportunity to see what could be different, especially during the pandemic.” 

In response to the news about the pep rally being held in the evening, Lane made a petition to have the pep rally during school. Lane said she felt that it was important to have the rally in school because many students have other commitments like sports and other extracurricular activities after school and into the evening, which makes it harder to get people to come.  

“I think it’s really important to have the pep rally during the school day,” Lane said. “It gets kids more involved and not everybody is able to participate after school.” 

The biggest hurdle of getting the pep rally to happen during school is getting the approval of administration.  

“The main reason is we don’t want 1500 kids packed into the gym and having to bus the freshman up, and a lot of the students don’t want to go anyways,” activities director Larry Myers said. “When you bus them all up [to west campus] you’re basically telling them they have to go.” 

Pride puts a lot of time into the pep rallies. From choosing themes the week leading up to it, to the activities done during the pep rally.  

“I think that the pep rally should be held during school for our pride girls who have waited until their senior year to do it,” junior Kaylee Kurman said. “This is something that they put all their hard work into, so I think they should be able to experience a real normal school pep rally.” 

The pep rallies usually consist of activities to boost school spirit, the PowderPuff cheerleaders, and highlighting our sports and clubs. Along with this, the rallies give the opportunity for the whole school to come together, something that doesn’t happen often.  

“I like the pep rallies because we get to see a lot of school involvement, especially from people who aren’t able to make it to student sections at games,” Kurman said. “It’s really good to see the student body as a whole, and show their school spirit. You get to see representatives from clubs that you might not know about and they get time to get recognized.”