On Friday, Sept. 20th, one of the most attended fall events of the school year occurred on the football field: the annual pep rally. This event was filled with dances and skits prepared by each fall varsity sports team, in order to celebrate the school and boost morale the day before homecoming. Performances included introductions for each athlete varying from a choreographed dance including songs by Nicki Minaj to fun relay challenges, such as who can do a handstand for the longest.
“The function [of pep rally] is to kind of bring the school together to jump start the year,” the director of athletics, physical education, and health for the district, Mr. Agostino, said. ”You have a good pep rally, it kind of rolls the entire year that way too.”
This helps establish the importance of pep rally and explains how impactful it can be to have this event be exciting and fun for the student body.
Tenth grader, Gabriel Regalado, who is on the JV field hockey team was watching Pep Rally this year. She said, ”the atmosphere was amazing, and the community was great.”
However, not only is this to bring together and school, it is also to get them cheering for the Bay Shore Football team, the next day at Homecoming.
“We gain support”, said one of the captains of this year’s varsity football team, Joshua Holliman. “It puts a lot of weight on our shoulders because we feel like we have to win for the team [and] for the school.”
Holliman elaborated on this point and said that this event helps hype up the team and it drives them to play well since everyone is excited for the game. As it is proven here, this event really is important for not only the school in general, but also the sport’s teams, in terms of gaining motivation and school spirit to support them.
In terms of the other athletes, even though it does not necessarily come directly before a game, it is still a really fun day that fall varsity sports players look forward to each year. However, it is not taken lightly for many teams, and there is a lot of preparation behind these performances.
“For a week or two in advance, all the seniors will choose the songs and learn the dance,” varsity volleyball player and pep rally performer, Lily Gargan, said. “Then, the week of pep rally, we teach the underclassmen the dance in parts so that it is perfected and ready to go.”
A lot of time and effort is put into this day and the dances always end up being very fun to watch. Also, teams anxiously await to see who will win that year’s spirit stick, a token given to two sports teams that the Cheerleaders decide portrayed the most school spirit.
This year the volleyball team did “a mashup of Teen Beach Movie songs” and, even though the spirit stick went to the girl’s soccer team and the boy’s volleyball team, Gargan still said, “I truly loved performing.”
This day, being a shortened school day and an outside event, creates a whole different environment that is special for everyone involved.
“It made me feel very honored to be a Marauder and attend Bay Shore” said senior, Thomas Hemingway, a student watching the pep rally. “It reminds us how we are a team as a student body.”
To end this off, the 2024 pep rally was truly a success where the amount of school morale and support for athletics was massive. Mr. Agostino said, “that was probably the most attended game I have seen here so far in my four years.”
