High School Pep Rallies

[yooolizzi]

What are some fun things your school does during pep rallies to get the students involved? Our student council director told us out girls aren't doing enough during pep rallies to get everyone involved. Our pep rallies using go along the lines of
2:00 - dismissed from class to go to homeroom
2:10- go from homeroom to the gym for the actual pep rally
2:20- Homecoming pinning and the entire court is introduced
2:35- each captain of a fall sport is asked to come down and talk
2:40- cheerleaders perform a dance
2:42- spirit stick awarded to the loudest class
2:45- dismissal

The first 40 minutes have always been a super drag, and no one is pushing to speed them up. We want to remove the homecoming court from the actual pep rally, and just pin them and hand them their flowers during the pregame (where they also get introduced, which is another half hour.) They are also announced as being on court over the announcements at school.

We used to have longer pep rallies, but the students became so disinterested in them because they're boring for the most part, that the school cut them from an hour, to "45" minutes.

 

[quitthedrama]

In our area the seniors do a skit. Normally a theme based on a "roast" of the other team or even poking fun at some of their own school traditions - the skits I have seen are hilarious and get the crowd going. Each class also does a wall mural that they work on the week leading up to the pep rally and they are hung the day of the rally and judged by the teachers (no idea what they get if they win lol). My oldest CP's school used to have their Thanksgiving (in our area the last regular game of the season is on Thanksgiving morning) pep rally at night and include the parents and it was a blast. The seniors would perform the skit, the band would play and the dance teams and cheerleaders would perform their competition routines and the seniors from football, cheer and band would be recognized with their parents.

 

[BuegeSmalls]

In high school our pep rallies were at the end of the day, all classes were shortened those days. Our pep rallies were put on my student council

The schedule was something like:
National Anthem sung by choir
Fight Song (literally the only time we ever did our fight song)
JV cheer routine
Varsity cheer routine (for cheer we either did our full comp routine or just the first half and cheer or cheer and second half)
Dance team routine
Football coach talked (if homecoming, basketball coach talked if turnabout)
Announce Homecoming (or Turnabout) Court
Class yells, kind of just happened at random times. People jus started chanting whatever
Games-musical chairs w/pies in the face if you got out, some kind of relay race.
End pep rally

 

[Official OWECheer]

In high school our pep rallies were at the end of the day, all classes were shortened those days. Our pep rallies were put on my student council

The schedule was something like:
National Anthem sung by choir
Fight Song (literally the only time we ever did our fight song)
JV cheer routine
Varsity cheer routine (for cheer we either did our full comp routine or just the first half and cheer or cheer and second half)
Dance team routine
Football coach talked (if homecoming, basketball coach talked if turnabout)
Announce Homecoming (or Turnabout) Court
Class yells, kind of just happened at random times. People jus started chanting whatever
Games-musical chairs w/pies in the face if you got out, some kind of relay race.
End pep rally

What's turnabout?

 

[SmileyRyleigh]

We always had a black light pep rally for homecoming. The football players would do a dance in the black light and it was always really funny. SGA would also do a skit. The band would play and the cheerleaders did a dance and then so did the dancers. We handed out glow sticks (we always got hit in the face lol) and last year the cheerleaders taped glow sticks to our arms and legs so that people could see our motions! It was always a lot of fun because our homecoming theme is always a rave. If your school could pull it off it's definitely a unique pep rally and it's a lot of fun!!


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[BuegeSmalls]

What's turnabout?

When the girls ask the guys to the dance! It was our winter dance. I think it was in January. I never went to that one hahah

 

[Official OWECheer]

When the girls ask the guys to the dance! It was our winter dance. I think it was in January. I never went to that one hahah

Ah, hence the name? Turning the roles about?

 

[cheernerd5678]

We don't call them pep rallies but what you're describing sounds like our homecoming/court warming assembly so I'll tell you what happens at those
- principal welcomes everyone
- court is introduced and walk with their dates into the gym and to their seats at the front
- random people talk about stuff like art, yearbooks, choir, upcoming events, announcements, etc
- one person from each fall sport (or whatever season, cheer and dance are included) goes to the stage and Stu Co has games they set up to see which sport wins.
- awards given out/teams recognized for accomplishments
- band plays their show (or part of it)
- BGs (dance team) do a routine
- JV cheer does their routine (usually just the music part and sort of dumbed down bc we only get three mats)
- Varsity cheer same thing
- they tell everyone to come to the game
- band plays fight song and cheerleaders and dancers dance as people leave

 

[Official OWECheer]

I highly recommend using poms, signs, and megaphones for a crowd-leading cheer.

 

[MHSCheercoach]

We only get 1 pep assembly each year, unless of course our basketball team is doing awesome then we might get a 2nd one. They are held at the end of the day, about the last 45 minutes and in conjunction with homecoming (our homecoming is in January since we don't have football). It usually starts with introduction of teams, JV basketball, then Varsity basketball, Girls basketball that co-op with another school, then cheerleaders. When I introduce the cheerleaders individually they perform some skill (Toe touch, tumbling, splits, etc) then they do hello, then a cheer/dance that we choose. Then homecoming court is announced (quickly), school song, then games for the classes led by Student Council.

 

[jessicastuart]

Our homecoming pep rally takes place in October on the same day as our big homecoming game. It's one of the longest running rivalries in NYS and everyone gets pretty into it! Our school focuses on showcasing the 4 classes (fresh, soph, juniors and seniors) and there are a lot of games that involve each class competing against each other. Whichever class wins the most games is "the best class". Here's our typical schedule:

1. Dismissal from classes into the gym
2. National Anthem & School Song played by the band and chorus
3. Introduction of the Senior class (entire class runs out)
4. Introduction of the Varsity football team (team runs out)
5. Introduction of pep rally MC's (2 seniors always MC the pep rally and have a skit) - the MC's take some time to get the school pumped up for the big game
6. Varsity Captains introduce each Varsity-level team
7. Performance of JV Cheerleaders
8. Class Game #1 (music chairs using human bodies)
9. Teacher skit
10. Class Game #2 (pie eating contest)
11. Performance of Varsity Cheerleaders
12. Class Game #3 (relay race with relay race, blindfolds, etc.)
13. Rose Ceremony - This is one of my favorite things. I am highlighting this because I haven't seen anyone post about a similar part of a pep rally yet. The Varsity Cheerleaders line up across the gym facing each other with a space in between. Our Senior football players take a turn to walk down the aisle and give a single rose to one of the cheerleaders. This has been a forever tradition at our school and I think it's a special way to show appreciation from the football players to the cheerleaders. They play sappy music, and the students "awe". I always cry! Haha
14. Pump-up Speech from the Varsity football coach
15. Homecoming Court Results
16. Dismissal for students in the homecoming car parade: any club, sport or class can get permission to take part in the car parade. The parade is led by fire trucks and police cars. We have 3 elementary schools in our district and the parade goes past each school. The admin and teachers bring out the students and everyone cheers as the parade goes by. They're told to wear the district's colors on T-NT Homecoming Day.. it's so cute!

We use to do class skits, but my sophomore year the seniors blew it and were vulgar so it's been pulled ever since (I went to the same school I coach at). It's a really special day and since birth, community members are bred to go all out during T-NT Homecoming Week.

 

[blyndreamalum]

Ours were always lame, which I always hated. They were run very similar to what has been posted. One thing that I always hated about our homecoming rally was that the night before we had our parade/ bonfire where each class rep and Queen candidate was introduced and their little intro speech was read. Then it was read again at the rally, and the. AGAIN at the game that night. It became exhausting and repetitive.

I've mentioned in other threads that my boyfriend went to a private school. We have 2 big private schools in the area and the rivalry is insane! Both schools have Beat Mooney/ Beat Ursuline week ahead of time where each day is themed. I drove by Ursuline every day for college and the big windows in the front of the school would even be painted with the theme for the week. It was common at both schools for parents and alumni to come to the rallies and they were huge! My cousin went to Mooney and didn't even play football but my aunt went to the rally. My boyfriend went to Ursuline and also didn't play football and his mom went as well. I wish ours had been huge like that.

 

[ashscott41]

Not sure why your StuCo director is pushing this responsibility off on cheer, but maybe I just came from a really great StuCo program. If they want it to be less boring and more fun, get rid of the talking and add more games.

After each sport is recognized do a class competition game related to that sport. Softball/baseball-dizzy bat races, basketball- 3 point contest, for cheer we had some super old unis with elastic waistbands and they had to run to the other end of the gym, put on the skirt, grab poms, do a toe touch, take off the skirt, and run back for the next person to go, swim had something similar with floaties and flippers and jumping in a baby pool, football was throwing balls into a trash can, etc etc.

I will say that you have to be SUPER organized and have the help of all StuCo members to pull it off, so depending on how involved your StuCo kids and student body are, this might not work. Things have to be set up/taken down while each sport is talking in order to keep it moving quickly. We usually had three people per relay team for each class and one team made up of teachers for each game. Students could only do one game per assembly and you couldn't participate in the game for a sport you played. Whichever class won the most games got points added to their overall totals for hoco and court warming. We didn't really do games or anything for spring sports and it was boring. If you need help with games or anything let me know and I can see if I still have any StuCo stuff on my old computer.

 

[cheerKT]

We usually had 3 pep rallies a year. (football Homecoming, football rivalry game, basketball homecoming) I think that's a good number. Overdoing it could cause burnout and annoyance of the attendees. Ours generally went as follows:

Seniors lined up outside and had a special "entrance" for the homecoming pep rally. They were announced and ran out into their section on each others shoulders, in funny costumes, linking arms, in shopping carts, whatever. It was just a silly little tradition. Everyone else started in their seats.

Band plays a song or two, cheerleaders/dance team/whoever dances.

Student body or senior class president would generally serve as the MC. The coach of whatever sport we were rallying for would have a little speech. Usually introduce the captains or the seniors.

Student government would sometimes organize a game, depending on time constraints. Sometimes it was between popular teachers, sometimes it was a representative from each grade level. Pie eating contest, dizzy bat races, water balloon toss, potato sack race, etc.

For homecoming, the nominees and queens from each grade level were announced at the rally. They would get their sash and get to ride in a convertible in front of their classes' float in the homecoming parade that night before the game. Then all nominees for the homecoming queen were announced and recognized, but the winner wasn't announced till halftime of the game that night.

Cheerleaders would usually do a cheer or two or a dance into a stunt, another band song, and everyone went home. We usually didn't do the "spirit stick" for classes until that night at halftime.

 

[cheerdiva22]

My school only has one a year and it's outside on the track because our gym is too small. I don't remember everything that happened because my only pep rally was two years ago since it rained last year.
I know the poms team does a dance
Seniors on varsity fall sports teams are recognized
Freshman/JV/varsity cheer all do a routine together
Varsity cheer and varsity boys soccer do a dance together (this is usually really funny!)
There are many relay races and games that the students sign up for In advance.
We have the "coolest senior" contest where during the entire contest 5 seniors have to sit/stand/lay on a block of ice. This is really popular.
Multiple grade level spirit checks.
I think that's all, I don't remember the rest!