Glen Rock High School held the annual pep rally in September kicking off the year filled with excitement. Since the school’s own football team was off to a tremendous start to their season, with the varsity soccer team showing their talent to the field, the students were all fired up, especially with the matching colors, face paint etc.

The freshman and sophomores were the first of the student to make their way to the gym filling up the bleachers leaving no space for movement. Students stood shoulder to shoulder shaking the bleachers and shouting like wild beasts full of panther pride.

Then the Juniors made their grand entrance running to across the gymnasium wearing all red and wacky outfits, filling up the bleachers in seconds. The gym was filled with there supersonic screams challenging both the Sophomores and Freshman with their spirit.

Every year each grade’s goal is to overpower the other grades spirit. The Senior’s entrance to the pep rally was not just entertaining but dominating. It started with Senior athletes such as Colin Mcdevitt, Ryan Harris taking charge getting the whole school up on its feet, cheering. With the Panthers mascot helping get school spirit higher, senior Mark Buckel took the opportunity to lead the tradition of tackling the Panther and pinning it down.

This brought the whole senior class storming through the gymnasium doors into their own section of the bleachers jumping non-stop causing the gym to shake like a mini earthquake. The cheerleaders took center stage once the crowd settled. They went on to encourage each class to hear each others spirit, starting the battle of which class had more spirit, starting with the freshman and ending with the seniors who let loose with school spirit. It was no surprise that the freshman got absolutely stomped on by their upperclassmen per usual which encouraged the seniors to start chanting the traditional “SIT DOWN FRESHMAN” chant. The freshman, dazed for the second surrendered and sat down even though teachers told them to stand back up. The freshman took their time to recover from such a beatdown.

After a motivating speech by Principal Arlotta, Seniors from fall sports were called down to thank all the students for their support and being loyal fans to Glen Rock athletics.

Wrapping up the Pep rally, students from each grade competed in games featuring the egg and spoon relay, hula hoop, and tug of war. In the student favorite of the pep rally, tug of war, the Sophomores defeated the Freshman but the Freshman didn’t go out without a fight while the Seniors defeated the Juniors. In the finale, the Seniors held their own defeating the Sophomores lead by Gabe Weinstock, Max Lindley, and Colin Mcdevitt.