The roar of the crowd in the stands, and the cheering of the teams in the relay race echo through the gym, as the pep rally is underway. The pep rallies sprinkled throughout the school year are a favorite activity. Among the favorites is the annual Halloween pep rally, especially due to a combination of more typical pep rally activities, as well as a costume contest and other Halloween-specific activities.
A lot of planning goes into school pep rallies. This year, vice principal Christopher Luther led a select team of six student volunteers in the morning during the weeks and months leading up to the pep rally to research, plan, and execute the event. Mr. Luther said he likes this method of student-led planning because it enables students to really take ownership over their high school experience, which is a big theme here at Morgan.“It’s your four years, so make it the best,” said Luther.
In terms of inspiration for activities, ideas often come from social media, as well as from other schools.
“My administrative assistant’s daughter goes to Valley and had talked about doing the human ring toss game.” Mr Luther also said,“ We looked up that TikTok challenge – trying to hit the drum at the right time, and I thought up the Halloween-themed balloon race,” said Mr. Luther. He acknowledged the pep rally would not happen without a lot of other people’s support, too. “With those games, I brought them to Mrs. Iverson and Mr. Gersz. I had some student help- Ava Nettleton, Gretchen Guelke, Emily Kravitz, and Addyson Beck,” said Mr. Luther
Among the more standard games, like ring toss and relay races, there are other, more unique games, such as the cup and noodle game. Debuted at this year’s STEP pep rally, it has grown to be a fan favorite for the Morgan school. Senior Ava Nettleton said, “Everyone really seemed to enjoy the cup and noodle game.”
The game consists of several students running around, each with a solo-style cup atop a pool noodle and a second pool noodle in the other hand, used to knock the cup off other students’ noodles. The game ends when there is one remaining student with a cup still on their noodle. This year, Eric Lopez and Tristan Elliott shared the win, both
hitting the cups off the other’s noodle at the same time.
This year, the school also did a Halloween-specific “mummy wrap the teacher” game using toilet paper. The winner was decided by the crowd cheer level. Junior Colton Landino and teacher Alex Distefano won the game. Out of the four teacher-student teams that participated, two of those teams were mother-daughter teams- English teacher Brooke Mazzarella and her daughter, Camryn, as well as guidance
secretary Karyn O’Beirn and her daughter Saoirse.
The costume contest had strong participation, with the winning costume decided by a school-wide Google form. Layla Anderson and Enrique Carvalho-Dotor won first place with their Ratatouille-inspired costumes. Second place went to Brooke Lawlor and Kevyn Calazans with steampunk/time-inspired costumes, third place to Katrina Harris, Alex Vece, and Coraline Mongillo with Animal, Swedish Chef, and Beaker costumes respectively, and fourth place to Andres Portilla with a blow-up chicken costume.
Even though the pep rallies are so well-thought-out, the students responsible are always trying to make sure they go well, as well as make improvements over previous pep rallies. One of the student organizers, senior Ava Nettleton, said, “We’re always trying to improve things and make it more engaging for everyone. Obviously, we have fun, being out there and organizing it, but we have to make sure that we’re really drawing in the people that are just standing on the bleachers.” If every student enjoys the pep rally, they will have achieved their goal.
And achieve their goal they did. Sophomore Michael Bowker said, “It was fun; it was amazing. I liked watching the games.” Sophomore Aiden Nieves said, “It was really enjoyable to watch. I really enjoyed the activities they did, especially the cup noodle competition.” Bowker also said, “I wish I could play (the games). Maybe next time.” His only suggestion to improve the pep rally was to make it longer, with more activities.
Ultimately, the Halloween pep rally went great, and the school is so very grateful to the people who make these events possible. Pep rallies give us the chance to show our school spirit and have fun as a school. As Mr. Luther said, “ I want it to be fun for everybody. Mrs. Hagness wants it to be fun for everybody, and that’s really it. So just enjoy.”
