During the tutorial period last Thursday, the rally commission pumped up the holiday spirit with a wide range of activities and contests that pitted grades against each other and even threw in a surprise birthday celebration
To start, freshman Jackson Gavin, sophomore Tigris Chen, junior Ethan Tian and senior Nirvan Shah competed in an eating challenge: finishing a plate of 10 cookies as fast as possible. The silence and anticipation was broken when Tian wolfed down his last cookie, sending the junior class into an eruption of cheers.
“Watching the students from the different grades try their hardest to finish the cookies was very interesting,” freshman Alvin Shen said. “Seeing how their different strategies compared with each other made it very fun to watch.”
Next the dance team performed an intricate pom routine.
Then, one basketball player from each grade — freshman Kashyap Vangala, sophomore Kat Liu, junior Aiden Liu and senior Cole Sheehy, participated in a 3-point shooting contest.
Freshman Kashyap Vangala went into full Steph Curry mode, making an impressive eight 3-pointers in the allotted one minute, over half his shots. The other three players didn’t match his performance, and the youngest player on the court came out on top.
“We had a lot more spirit in terms of cheering for our grade when we were able to pull out with the win in the basketball contest,” freshman class vice president Ashlyn Hoang said.
After that, the cheer team showed off one of their routines
To follow their performance, a tournament style bubble soccer match was set up — a game in which players wear inflatable balls and try to push each other off the mat. The match pairs were decided with the roll of a dreidel: The sophomores starting off against the seniors and the freshmen following up against the juniors.
Sophomore Gavin Moore swiftly won his match against senior Ron Holst, and junior Mo Pahulu knocked down freshmen Ronin Vierra, making him collapse to the ground and unable to recover in time.
“Bubble soccer was my favorite part of the entire rally,” sophomore Aarush Gandluru said. “Seeing the students fight each other made it very entertaining.”
Continuing the class competition, the next game was musical chairs. The game started with eight competitors — two from every grade level.
In the second round, a skirmish between two players, freshman Lindsey Lee and freshman Matthew Daily left the freshmen down to one competitor. Slowly but surely, players got eliminated one by one. With three people left, much to the disappointment of sophomores, sophomore Zisu Chen lost with a loud boo coming from their section.
In the last round, there were only two players left: junior Akiva Goldwasser and senior Sohaana Potti. In a tight contest, Goldwasser quickly turned and sat down before Potti realized the music stopped.
The rally finished with a display of pickup lines from representatives of each grade trying to please Santa Claus, who was played by senior Anthony Tran.
Everyone had their own unique pickup line, but the final call gave senior Jayden Kwong the win.
“I really enjoyed the North Pole line the most (“It’s hot here, take me up to the North Pole”). I thought it was going to win,” freshman Shyam Sharoff said.
Sophomore Roger Xu had a different opinion.
“My personal favorite line was: Are you a campfire? Cuz you’re hot and I want s’more of you,” Xu said.
To round things out from all the action, all the students and staff celebrated assistant principal Matthew Torrens’s birthday in a wholesome moment.
“I really liked the rally, I had a lot of fun hanging out with my friends and just watching all the games unfold,” Gandluru said. “I really wished we won more games, but the anticipation building around everything was wonderfully designed by the Leadership crew, and the new games made the rally stand out from the other rallies hosted this year.”
