The year opened with an abundance of school spirit. Both the rally and spirit commissions ran a successful week of school spirit reaching its peak at the rally on Sept. 5.

Students started advertising for the event online and by posters, which were plastered all over school. students came together to make the rally a strong starting point to increase school spirit for the year.

“I think the students just became spirited this year,” said senior Natalie Miller, president of the rally commission. “I don't know what caused it, but I'm not questioning it because it is exactly what we have been working towards for years.”

At 7 a.m. on Friday, the spirit commision hosted the Rally Tailgate. More than 100 students arrived at school 40 minutes early and decked out  in their class colors.

The commission set up tables for each grade, handed out beads and painted faces. They also gave out free food and hot chocolate.

“The rally was the most spirited one of my high school experience so far, and I think it relates directly to the tailgate,” rally commissioner Madison Gress said.  “The tailgate gave students something additional to look forward to and created further incentive to dress up and be spirited.”

The energy and the enthusiasm carried from the tailgate into the rally during tutorial. As they entered the gym, people shook from the deafening roar of students chanting the obligatory phrase: “Go home, freshmen.”

“All the classes were so spirited, which really makes our job a lot easier because, just like any sport or performance, we feed off of people's energy,” Miller said.

The actual rally consisted of a dance and skit by the rally commision, games played by students from each class and performances by different groups, which include the dance team, robotics club, cheer team and drumline.

“This year we are going to work on involving more people into the rallies,” Miller said. “For this rally we were able to have the drumline play at the beginning.”

The rally opened with the rally commision performing a skit filled with small little nuances poking fun at different parts of school culture and life. The dance and cheer team followed suit delivering their football performance to energize the crowd.

The crowd pleasers, however, were the numerous class games that were played during the rally. The spirit was running rampant during these parts especially the junior and senior class who were on their feet cheering on their classmates.

Another member of the rally commission, junior Zhan Ng, pointed to the class cheers at the end of the rally as the highlight.

“It was something where an entire grade got together through one voice and had an opportunity to be a part of a unified whole,” he said.