On April 19th, 2024 Tallwood had their annual April pep rally to complete off the school year. The gym was crawling with Tallwood lions of all grades. The sophomore and freshman class filled the left side of the gym; meanwhile, the juniors and seniors filled up the right side of the gym.
The pep rally is a rough month long process with a variety of events and challenges all having to be fit in a 45 minute timeline, “You have to reserve the PE equipment, plan a relay game, find someone to emcee, communicate with the step team to find song and see how long it will take…” says Julian Cooper.
As everyone settled down into the bleachers, two speakers started speaking, including Zion Peebles, Tallwood student. Zion was an amazing announcer who always made the crowd roar. Both announcers then introduced the spring sports!
They introduced Girls Lacrosse, Boys Lacrosse, Softball, JV Baseball, Varsity Baseball, Girls Tennis, Boys Tennis, JV Boys Soccer, JV Girls Soccer, Boys Varsity Soccer, Girls Varsity Soccer, Boys Track Team, and finally the Girls Track Team.
They then introduced the French Delegation, Landstown exchange students, and then the Step Team. The Step Team seniors both did their solos and the whole team did their routine. The routine got very positive remarks from the student body.
There were a few games played within the pep rally. Each game consisted of two to three students from each class.
One of the first two games that were played was musical chairs. After seven seat-edging games, in the final round sophomore Emma won!
The next game was an obstacle course. The course consisted of each player holding a fake egg on a spoon and going around the cones. After the cones, they had to go into hula hoops that were on the ground and spin around without dropping the egg.
Once they finished they had to run back to their teammates and pass the egg off, and then the game repeats. There were three students from each class. After a very confusing game, the Sophomore class had yet another victory!
Then a star-struck moment happened for the student body… the Tallwood Lion mascot was about to be revealed. There was a huge suspense in the room. A type of feeling that made everything just stop. The mascot was revealed to be.. Senior Julian Cooper, “Ju-Lion.”
Cooper admitted to not being afraid of unmasking himself at the pep rally, “Actually it wasn’t. I planned and planned everything to the last minute and I was excited to do it.”
He then proceeded to tell, “I will say though, it was tiring, smelly at times, and very hot, but you all kept me going, motivated, and pushed me to keep on going. I have no regrets.”
The last game was “finish the lyrics.” Each class grade got a different song, and whichever class was the loudest and knew all of the lyrics won.
The Freshman class was very unsatisfied by their song, and a good majority of the class wasn’t able to resite it. The Sophomore class knew their song and went crazy! They were screaming the lyrics and very excited for their song. The Junior class went absolutely deranged for their song. There were people screaming and dancing. The Senior class was also unsatisfied by their song, and only a small group of students actually knew the lyrics.
The decision was tight on who won, but the winner was ultimately the Junior class.
The pep rally was a huge success with many different games being played and the reveal of the school’s mascot! Go Lions!
