Quakertown Senior High School knows how to build up school spirit. With a pep rally to gather attention for the annual Quakertown vs. Pennridge Thanksgiving football game, the excitement began the week before with a spirit week. Wednesday through Tuesday, the students in the school dressed in yellow, Hawaiian, PJs, monochrome, and showed up to the pep rally in their Minion-themed T-shirts. That’s right, Minion theme. Joey Meirinho, a junior, remarked that, “The choice of Minion was a nostalgic and funny choice as it was a big part of our childhood.” Also, as a warm-up for the big event, student council from each grade level took on decorating a hallway based on an assigned Minion theme for their grade. The junior class ended up taking the win for the best decorations. These few events just started the magical feeling that continued into the actual pep rally.
The pep rally kicked off with unmatchable energy, with roaring music, laughter, and chatter from the student body. As the high school’s very own Varsity Singers sang the national anthem, everyone was very respectful and intensely listened and cheered them on. This sense of community continued throughout the event, as the energy only heightened when the band came out and performed Crazy in Love by Beyoncé. Not only did the school highlight some of its music programs, but the cheerleaders let the football players tag in their cheer routine, teaching the football players some cool tumbling skills and stunts to shock the student body. Other than that, the hard work of the dance team was shown off with their elevated dance skills to the school with jaw-dropping performances.
Yet, it would not be a pep rally without some friendly competition. The freshmen did not truly understand the heat of the first game as they failed to yell for their grade level, sophomores did a little better as they clapped and cheered, and the juniors gave everyone a run for their money, but the win was given to the senior class, who had the most spirit out of everyone.
The next game played was full of popping balloons designed by the freshmen. The object of the game was to run and get a balloon and pop it on your partner without using your hands. The first team to pop all their balloons would get the first point of the pep rally, which was tracked by bananas. The freshmen took this win.
Then, there was a game introduced by Eric Rotzell, a representative for the sophomore class. The idea behind this game was that four people had to work together to keep a banana between their legs as they raced across the gym without it touching the floor or their hands. Although it was a close race between seniors and juniors, the juniors took the win.
The junior class had the wonderful idea of the mattress slides, where two people had to work together going back and forth between them to get an air mattress from one side of the gym to the other. Some of the senior football players took on this challenge and won for the senior class.
The final game before the student-teacher dance-off was a life-sized version of Hungry Hippos, envisioned by the seniors. One person rode a scooter while their partner pushed them into the center to collect balls for points. After two rounds, the seniors won, claiming the overall competition title for the pep rally.
The last competition of the day was a dance-off between two students, Gabe Jones and Jaelyn Taylor, and two teachers, Mrs. Camburn and Mr. Dinney. The students started off stronger with choreographed moves and lots of creative ideas, but the faculty brought their best foot forward and won with their innovative dancing.
The pep rally was everything Quakertown Senior High School stands for, as its Q-Rock initiatives shined the whole event. After the dance-off, Mr. Dinney took the time to say how everyone shows community, saying, “Everyone coming together today to cheer on an old man in a dance battle shows how close-knit we are.” Quakertown showed its pride and respect for one another with ease at the 2024 Minion pep rally.