At the beginning of every school year, JCHS conducts its annual fall Spirit Week, and finishes the week with a pep rally. This year, the pep rally was conducted outside at Bonnell Field, and hosted by the student council with the help of Ms. Dimitriv and Ms. Sarro. Each year, Spirit Week sees the students of JCHS competing to see who has the most school spirit. This year the seniors came in first, juniors in second, freshmen in third, and the sophomores in last place.
Grade vs. Grade
While the seniors ultimately won, the juniors gained a lot of points by winning both the potato sack race, and musical chairs. After the seniors beat the freshmen, and the juniors beat the sophomores, the two grades faced off in a final match of tug of war. While the juniors tried hard, they ended up losing after a long struggle during the match. After this, the senior class went up against the JCHS staff, and won in an extremely close game. The winner of the raffle was also announced, and the parking spot was given to senior Natalia Brown.
To bring some peppiness and electricity to the atmosphere, all three cheer teams performed their half time routines. The JCHS cheer teams and coaches all choreograph and practice their routines frequently to perform them in front of the entire school. While this can be stressful, it is very rewarding to see it come together. When asked about coaching, Mrs Bergman, a cheer coach, said that while it can be tough, her favorite part about her job is “Seeing our routines come together after working hard and continuing some of the cheer traditions that get passed on year after year like the band dances.”
Speaking of the band, the JCHS Pep Band works hard to play songs during games and rallies, and make the experience more fun for the students. This year, they performed “Notre Dame” during the pep rally. They are constantly practicing to make their music the best it can possibly be, and be loud and clear even though they are smaller in size compared to other bands like West Essex and Pequannock.
Exclusive Interview With Ms. Sarro About Organizing the Pep Rally
Q: What’s your favorite part about organizing the pep rally?
A: Working with the kids to come up with spirit week themes, working with Ms. Dimitriv, starting the school year off with lots of pep and excitement, and hearing the national anthem.
Q: Do you find it stressful to organize such a big event?
A: Yes, there are a lot of different parts to it, such as who will play music, who has to be where, getting kids excited has been very tough. But I’m hopeful it will be more of a routine and easier to manage in the coming years.
Q: Do you want to change up some of the traditions or games in the coming years?
A: Definitely the games. For example, instead of dizzy bat, we did the potato sack race. We feel like we might change up some games for the winter pep rally.
Q: What is your favorite part of the Pep rally?
A: Watching the kids play the games and get excited. Especially since I run it, I get to see student council members act as leaders. I also love to see the hosts add in their own jokes and get the crowd going.
Q: What was your favorite spirit day?
A: Barbie versus Oppenheimer.
