September 26, 2019. That was the last time a pep rally was held in the gymnasium. Luckily, the return of the pep rally came just in time for Homecoming. The teams performing or speaking had around a week to prepare and plan.  All to show off their hard work and dedication. 

All fall sports were acknowledged, and students sang the fight song. Also, the band, cheer, and dance performed. The students sat by class and the fall sports sat on the gym floor. It happened at fifth block during the school day. 

Since this was the first time the whole student body gathered in the gym for a pep rally, the underclassman struggled to follow along with school spirit. They are still learning the cheers and how to get excited at school events.

¨I feel like not having pep rallies for the last two years has definitely affected the student body. I feel this way because most people have probably never experienced a pep rally, so they wouldn’t know what to expect. Students are probably not as excited to have a pep rally because it hasn’t been done in so long,¨ junior Stoyota Nguyen said.

This is not only exciting for the student body, but also for the teams that get to speak or perform. Football gets to speak about their program and the band gets to perform. This gets the school pumped up, and students like to see their friends play.

¨Pep rallies are important to help with school spirit and show people what our school is about. The band is ready and we have it all prepared. We got our series down and then we will show up and play what the people want,¨ junior Ian Keeney said.

Homecoming week is supposed to be exciting and bring the school together. Celebrating our school spirit in the gym together is important to getting everyone pumped up for the week. ¨The pep rally just shows we have school spirit and as a cheerleader I feel like that’s just what everybody wants. I also think it just adds extra hype to the homecoming game and dance,¨ junior Morgan Hauschild said.

Sometimes underclassmen lack school spirit because of fear of judgment. Sophomore Peyton Aleksiejczyk said that it can be embarrassing when you don’t know the cheers yet. With every football victory, more students are getting comfortable showing their school spirit.

¨The pep rallies are important to West because we want to make people excited, and we want people to be happy to be a part of West. When people don’t, it makes others not feel as excited; they think it will turn out bad,¨ Aleksiejczyk said.

Since West hasn´t done this in a while they were a little rusty with how to fill extra time. Students and athletes struggled to keep a positive face after having to perform the fight song multiple times in a row.

¨The pep rally went smoothly except for the part where we did the fight song three times. We could have added something else to it or had some teachers speak instead,¨ Aleksiejczyk said.