Grand Island High School pep rally was worth waiting for

Grand Island Dispatch, December 15, 2006
by Nathan Keefe
Class of 2008

Students in Cheryl Chamberlain’s 5th period class wore blue and white shirts – and in some cases – face paint, to show their school spirit for the Grand Island High School Pep Rally last Friday. (photo by Nathan Keefe)

Cheers went up as the student body and all the teachers gathered in the gym last Friday afternoon for Grand Island High School’s annual pep rally. The event had to be rescheduled after the October storm hit Grand Island and the rest of Western New York.

Most students enjoyed the pep rally and the shortened class periods that made it possible. Freshman Sam Abdellatif had a good time and thought it was fun. However, fellow freshman Seth Klein thought the rally was too loud. “There was a lot of screaming - too much for me,” he said. Junior Rob Stewart said it took about five minutes for him to regain his hearing after the shouting was over.

Sophomore Karen Hillock was a newcomer to the day’s activities. She said it was “not what I was expecting, this being only my first time. I really liked the cheerleaders, the boys track team eating the worms, the tug-of-war and Mr. Murray’s “blue shoe, white shoe” routine. Kevin Murray, a Social Studies teacher, comes into the center of the gym, takes off the shoes he wore and puts on one shoe that’s blue and one that’s white, signifying the school colors. Then he will lift one foot and stomp down hard, having the crowd recite the color shoe he is stomping on. It can get confusing when he stomps on both feet at once. Mr. Murray’s act always seems to get the crowd going.

Student Michael Dinsmore had the honor of announcing, at the top of his lungs, the start of the tug-of-war. This event, like many others that day, involved a contest between teachers and student athletes. Onlookers watched the male teachers pull the football team around the gym like they were on a set of Rollerblades. The girls did get their chance to participate in a tug-of-war, with the same results. The teachers won. Fourteen members of the girls soccer team were pulled to the other side of the gym in a matter of minutes by only eight female teachers. I guess you could say that teachers were at the top of their game that day.

Karen Hillock enjoyed the game between the girls soccer team and the women faculty members. The boys basketball team’s dunking contest was another favorite of Karen and her brother, Mike.

The boys basketball team went head-to-head with the girls basketball team in a 3-point shooting contest. The boys won by a score of 3 to 2. Christopher Simpson and Jenepher Banker, the boy’s and girl’s head basketball coaches, respectively, took on one of the gym teachers in another shootout.

Cheerleaders performed two of their routines, which were complex and interesting in the way that they can do all of those acrobatics, including backward flips, pyramids and dancing.

Awards went to two athletes of the year in each class. Sports team captains paraded to the front of the crowd and thanked team members and the fans who supported them. Also, the new homecoming king and queen, James Rayill and Devon Golda, were introduced.

Students really look forward to the pep rally each year. It’s too bad it had to be postponed, but when it finally happened, it was a chance to let loose and really show your school spirit. All in all, the pep rally was a huge success – and well worth waiting for.