On Thursday, October 5, 2023, Pep Rally was held at Yorktown High School for its annual comeback. With the homecoming football game against Fox Lane the very next night, school spirit was extremely high. The entire student body was out in the bleachers cheering for the school’s sports teams.
The freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors wore yellow, green, white and black shirts, respectively: Yorktown’s colors. As the students were divided by grade and therefore shirt color in the bleachers, they took on an impressive view of Yorktown school spirit.
Yorktown High School’s band played in the center of the bleachers, performing morale boosting songs such as Stand Up and Cheer and The Hey Song for the cheerleaders to cheer and dance along with.
After cheering with the band, the cheerleaders executed impressive cheers of their own with flips, stunts, chants, and dances. The crowd erupted into applause with every seemingly impossible trick the girls landed.
Yorktown High School’s dance team also gave an impressive performance. They, as usual, danced with tremendous enthusiasm in a well choreographed routine. The dance team did a terrific job keeping the crowd’s energy up when transitioning over to the sports teams’ skits.
The sports teams’ skits are the most highly anticipated part of Pep Rally. Changing every year, they are prepared and performed by each varsity team that is in season during autumn. The varsity teams line up along the field while the band, cheerleaders, and dance team perform. They then burst out onto the field through posters with their team’s name on them to present their skits.
This year, the team skits ranged from jousting on bicycles, to wrestling matches, to challenges that included pieing as punishment for losing. The crowd of students in the bleachers cheered and gasped at the various antics of the skits. Many varsity athletes left Pep Rally soaking wet, covered in baby power, or covered in whipped cream.
Tug of war matches even broke out between the grades with sophomores beating the freshmen and seniors beating the juniors in the first round. In the second round, the victorious sophomores and seniors played off against each other, with the seniors ultimately winning the match and therefore the entire tug of war competition. The losing freshmen and juniors faced off against each other as well, with the juniors winning their match. The final standings were the freshmen in fourth place, the juniors in third place, the sophomores in second place, and the seniors in first place.
After the activities ended, students flooded the field and met to hang out and chat before being dismissed back into the high school building. Despite the comedic skits and the laughs, Pep Rally can be quite a sentimental day for many seniors who are graduating at the end of this year. The Pep Rally of senior year is in many ways a sendoff to their time at high school. Many Seniors spent their time on the field to catch up with friends and take pictures.
Pep Rally has long been a tradition in high schools across the country. Yorktown High School’s Pep Rally, however, is special in its ability to rally a uniquely huge amount of school spirit. The students’ excitement during the event creates an energy that is unmatched by any other school event. Next year’s Pep Rally is sure to continue the tradition of humorous fun and, more importantly, school spirit.
