
Rine’s Wines is a bi-monthly column that takes a light-hearted look at all things Stafford High School and beyond. Check back for continued whines from Ms. Rine.
I’ve never been about school spirit.
I rarely participate in spirit days, I leave football games early, and I don’t own any school merchandise – if I do I give it straight to my mom. But the type of school spirit I hate the most is the school pep rallies.
Before I start my giant rant, let me clarify that I don’t hate them because I’m a loser who doesn’t have friends to hang out with during the rallies. I have friends, and they hate the pep rallies just as much as I do.
Pep rallies begin with an underwhelming spirit week in which only a select few participate. Spirit days are filled with clichéd themes that are so overused I can guess the entire week’s lineup before it’s announced. Why do we need a pajama day spirit day when everyone wears them to school, regardless?
Not all spirit days are terrible, though.
Our most recent spirit day had a theme of “bikers vs. surfers”. A subtle homage to my favorite Disney Channel Original movie, “Teen Beach Movie”, gave me hope that the spirit week’s game had stepped up just a little. It seemed like a break from the endless cycle of Wacky Wednesdays. Unfortunately, though, I missed school that day and couldn’t participate. Not that I would, though. I would stand by and judge my peers with their leather jackets and surfboards as if they walked right out of a Beach Boys music video.
After the underwhelming spirit days, students are gifted with the thrilling experience of a high school pep rally. Two thousand students, stacked on top of each other under the fluorescent lighting of the gym, bleachers swimming in synchronized colors for each grade. Nothing sounds better than being crammed into the bleachers with the entire school for an hour with the lingering smell of days-old body odor. Sounds like a great time to me.
Not only is the overcrowding unappealing, the games are, too. When I say all of this, I’m not knocking the efforts put into a pep rally; they’re just not my cup of tea.
In my 12 pep rallies over three years, students play the same game, and we get the same outcome. One game that pushes my buttons is the game where we have to finish the lyrics of a song. I think this game is the most arbitrary pep rally game ever.
Each grade gets their own song, and every year I’ve participated, my class is one of the classes that sings the loudest. So we should win, right? Hate to break it to you, but that’s not how it works. Every pep rally, every song played, the seniors win no matter what, because there is an invisible pep rally caste system. The seniors win because they’re at the top.
Not only do they win because of seniority, they win because they get the same song every time. It’s always “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. I’ve heard that song too many times at a pep rally that I hear it in my sleep, and I immediately fall back into those claustrophobic bleachers, trying not to trip over backpacks.
That being said, maybe I’m just a pessimist, or maybe I’m uncovering the true and trite factors of a pep rally. Regardless, I’d prefer to not sit in a tiny basketball court playing rigged games and performing a balancing act while standing on the bleachers.
So please, if anyone has found my school spirit, whip out the Ouija Board and call the Ghostbusters so I can enjoy school spirit activities again.
Bob – Feb 18, 2025 at 6:03 pm
As a former Principal I have to say that I concur. I didn’t like them when I was a student as I found them to be way too loud. As a Principal the same was true. Further, I was always on guard watching for potential trouble. I hope that your school gives that don’t want to go the opportunity to go to the cafeteria or auditorium during the pep rally.