On Monday September 16, Paint Branch High School held its first Pep Rally in the new football stadium.  It was a change having a pep rally on a Monday evening, but this was due to the inclement weather on Friday. Junior Jamie Chan commented on the change of dates and stated, “I prefer we have it on a Thursday, but it’s good that we’re having it [at all].”

With thoughts like this, the Pep Rally went on without a hitch and was a success; however, it also lacked fervor. Even Principal Dr. Myriam Rogers said that “the pep rally went well organization-wise, but it lacked spirit and enthusiasm.”

The pep rally began unofficially as students streamed out of their classrooms after the bell rang dismissing them to the football stadium. Once outside in the cool and comfortable but breezy weather, students started to chit-chat as they made their way to the bleachers. During this time, the band started to play on the field as the cheerleaders and poms danced.

Once the student body was seated, the M.C. came on, acknowledging the first pep rally in the new Paint Branch football field. Then he handed the floor over to Marching Band and Poms as they performed, with rhythm and soul, their rendition of Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven.”

As their performance came to a close, the PB fall sports teams came running out as their teams were announced; each was met with solemn applause. Xavier Matthews from the varsity soccer team came out to talk but, before he could get anything out, the mic had a malfunction. He tried to talk into the mic despite the malfunction; however, in the end, he gave up and walked back to his team.

The last team to be called was the varsity football team, who instead of being met with solemn applause, were met with a roaring cheer from the spectators/students. The coach of the football team Coach Nesmith came out and managed to get the microphone to work in his favor, as he made his speech to and about the football team and their accomplishments.

After the football coach finished his speech, the cheerleaders got together to liven up the students in the stands by giving a shout-out to each grade, which was met with limited participation and screams. When the freshmen were given their shout-out however, everyone seemed to suddenly gain spirit as they booed the lowest grade level in the school.

Once the booing died down, the band started to play a string of music as Dr. Rogers came to the mic to talk about the game that night. During her speech, she informed the Paint Branch student body that, even though the football team was going to crush Blake High School, they still had to treat the students of Blake with respect because they were to be guests at Paint Branch during the game. With that and a final reference to get everyone to come out to the tailgate that night, the pep rally came to a close as everyone started to file out en masse and make their way towards the buses that would take them home.