AVID coordinator Elizabeth Brown and Theatre Collective head director Erik Archilla walk to the middle of the gym, decked out in neon and glow in the dark accessories, as students cheer in the stands. The music dies down and Brown holds up the mic to kick off the senior pep rally.
Brown has helped organize pep rallies for almost a decade, while being the one of the emcees alongside Archilla.
Her responsibilities include communicating with student organizations that are participating, collecting their music, organizing rehearsals and making sure everyone understands the schedule.
“There’s a lot of work and I don’t get paid for it as necessarily extra money, but it’s worth it because it’s making memories for the students here,” Brown said.
Brown works with cheerleaders who decorate the gym, teachers who help run the event and student organizations that perform. Each group has to send in music, attend rehearsals and prepare for the final dress rehearsal before the rally.
“Just a lot of behind the scenes work,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of things around the building that I have bits and pieces of that I work with.”
Archilla helps lead the pep rallies alongside Brown by introducing student groups, talking to the crowd and keeping the pep rally moving from one act to the next.
Sometimes unexpected moments happen during the pep rally. For example, if a group is not ready to perform or if music does not start when it is supposed to, Archilla and Brown have to quickly fill time while the issue is fixed.
Archilla said he and Brown work well together in those situations because they can quickly improvise and keep the audience engaged until the next act is ready.
“That’s what’s so great about me and Mrs. Brown is that we’re really great at improvising our way through it and making it work and filling the time,” Archilla said.
DJ Chulo provides the sound and lighting for the school’s pep rallies. His job is to play songs for performances and keep the energy high in the gym.
Before the pep rally begins, Chulo arrives the night before to set up speakers, run cables and test microphones so the equipment is ready the next morning. Setting up early allows him to focus on playing music during the rally instead of worrying about technical problems.
“I have everything set up so all I have to do in the morning is plug in my laptop and go,” Chulo said.
During the pep rally, Chulo follows a printed program created by Brown that shows the order of performances and when certain songs need to play for each group.
Brown said one of the main goals of the pep rally is to build school spirit and help students feel connected to the community.
“We want people to think positively of school spirit,” Brown said.
Archilla said pep rallies are important traditions for the school.
“We’re one of the few high schools that still do pep rallies,” Archilla said. “It’s kind of an old tradition that we don’t want to let go of.”
Brown said hearing students talk about the pep rally afterward is what makes all the preparation worth it.
“What I love the most is hearing how much fun everybody had and how much they enjoyed it, and how much they loved seeing their friends perform,” Brown said.
