After the extra long winter break students got due to the snow storm, all school events got pushed back. Academics, sporting events, and many other activities, but not the pep assembly.
The winter pep assembly that leads into Saturday’s winter formal took place in the gym during the last 30 minutes of the school day on Jan. 23. Many students stayed fit and ready, waiting for their activity or sport to be called.
The assembly began when Lucy Lant (12), Coach Luedecke, Andrew Badra (12), and Coach Sodemann all participated in a 3-point competition. Each player had one minute to shoot as many 3-pointers as they could with Badra walking away with the win.
“It was very nerve wracking before the assembly started, so I started to throw some practice 3-pointers just to get a little more comfortable. I was nervous that I was going to air ball or do something else embarrassing, but once I started shooting I got super focused. I couldn’t hear the crowd or anything,” Lant said.
Since the assembly took place during 9th hour, the students had the first half of their class time to create their own paper airplane. They were able to test its flight ability. If you stepped outside your class, you would have seen many students out in the hall testing their airplanes.
At the assembly, one student from each class was called down to represent their class and throw their plane with Mr. McMillen’s nest time was crowned as the winner. Each student in McMillen’s class received a free winter formal ticket.
“My friend Ethan Griffith (12) was the one who built it. I was nominated to be the person who threw it, so he made it and then gave it to me,” said Kennedi Brower, who was the winner of the paper airplane contest. “He was sure that it was going to win because the way he made it was similar to a dart. When I went down there I waited until everyone had already thrown theirs and then I went so that it wouldn’t get hit by any other plane and that I had a direct target, and sure enough, it flew right in.”
One of the most exciting events of the assembly was the scavenger hunt that made sure to include as many students as it could. Student Council leaders Sullivan Thornton (11) and Sophia Sawyer (12) called for students to come down to the main floor. They then proceeded to play a game like musical chairs, having them run around a few hula hoops until the music stopped.
Thornton or Sawyer would then announce what they needed to find within the crowd. Examples of the things were a mechanical pencil, a water bottle, hair ties, and oddly enough a size 8 women’s shoe. They would then have to go into the crowd and find these or wait until a different student gave them one, some even throwing them onto the court, and have to run back and place it in the hula hoop. They would eliminate one hula hoop each round until there was one winner.
“I had a really fun time and was surprised when I got chosen since I’ve never been chosen for an assembly game,” Berkley LaMarque (12) said. “My favorite round of items was definitely the last one, the women’s size 8 shoe. I was running towards the bleachers and next thing I see is a girl’s boot being thrown at me, and then I caught it and ran back and won.”
Without a doubt, the most talked about part was the Student Council dance. This included dance numbers from “Diva” by Beyonce, “Teach Me How to Dougie” by Cali Swag District, “sweetener” by Ariana Grande, and “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira. Brody Marino (12), Myleigh Turnipseed (12), Jack Ryan (12), and Chandler Hirtz (12) were just some of the students who performed.
“We usually check what is trending online at the moment and we’ll talk about them to see how we all feel about doing it and what we think will get the crowd involved and having fun,” Hirtz said.