Emilly Weihrauch and Ruth Jean also contributed to this article
The seniors of Malden High School have once again won the annual Pep Rally with a score of 44.5. The class of 2024 became triumphant over the series of various challenges and have contributed to their grade’s reputation of remaining victorious against the other classes.
The National Honors Society (NHS) hosted Spirit Week, which included Pep Rally Day as one of the events. It took a lot of hard work and time, but with the help of advisor Paul Marques keeping everyone organized, everything happened accordingly. “It takes a lot; it takes many hours to do everything... but it has to get done,” Marques explained.
“I enjoyed brainstorming how we were going to send out the information to sign up for the pep rally,” Vice President of NHS, Alejandra Fernandez, commented. “Our brainstorming process consisted of using whiteboards to list the athletic teams and the people we should reach out to. There was a lot of teamwork in this process, and it was very fun to bring new ideas to the table and discuss them with all the officers.
This school tradition holds great importance to the school as it is considered one of the most anticipated events of the year. It allows groups of students from all grade levels to participate and shine in their respective sports. Not only so, but they also get to enjoy music, and performances and show off their athletic ability and teamwork skills.
Makeila Scott, President of NHS, stated that “although I do face some obstacles as president, the support of the rest of my council makes everything a much smoother process, though some obstacles I face as president would definitely be trying my best to ensure everyone is heard and content with different events/policies.” She found it “difficult making sure that every member, every council member, and the advisor are all one the same page when it comes to planning certain events or coordinating with outside organizations, so I try to be as attentive as possible to everyone's concern and carefully weigh the right to approach to address them.”
As the years go on, this annual commemoration continues to remain relevant in the school’s atmosphere, and it has yet to lose its appeal and excitement. It is a large part of the Malden High School experience. Each year, more and more students get involved and get to help run and be a part of this event. An example of the student’s involvement would be the Step Team, the size of whose members has changed drastically since the team’s earlier years; in 2015, it had merely ten members—compared to the present day where its member count has more than doubled since then.
“Being a part of the Pep Rally is fantastic because you get to show school spirit and support your class. I was honored to have been selected to be part of the team because of my love for sports and games. I met new people and got to collaborate with individuals that I typically don't encounter on a regular basis,” Junior Ivana Marinkovic noted.
Before everyone made it to the gym, there was a volleyball game between all four grades. The first team to make it to 15 points won. Since volleyball is a very popular sport at the school, it led many students eager to sign up and play. The seniors won that game and they were very enthusiastic about beating out the other grades.
Once everybody made it into the gym, everyone took a moment of silence to let the Malden High School’s choir perform the National Anthem.
After the choir’s performance, the Malden High School Cheerleaders took their mats out and prepared to perform. They showcased their talent and produced a great performance by giving it their all. Following an annual tradition of the football players going up to dance with the cheerleaders, the crowd of students cheered super loud when the cheerleaders were doing their stunts as they looked flawless.
Following the cheerleaders, the Step Team began their performance. Some of the cheerleaders were also on the Step Team. They came out in unison wearing a pink jersey, jeans, and white shoes. They performed beautifully and the rhythm was like no other.
Although there was a little difficulty with the music not starting, the performance turned out to be perfect otherwise. “In the beginning, they messed up the speakers because we were going to play a song, it threw us off a little bit, but other than that I think we did a very nice job,” Beyonce Pierre Rene laughed.
The game to start the day was a tug of war. The first grades to go against each other were the freshmen and sophomores. Even though the sophomores gave their best effort, the freshmen team crushed them. “We beat the sophomores in tug of war which is kind of crazy,” Raquel Ferreira laughed. The game continued with the seniors dominating against the juniors.
The next game was basketball free throws, with the goal of the game being to put the most balls in the hoop. The seniors had a rough start after missing 12 baskets in a row. However, in the end, they ended up tying with the freshmen at eight points. The sophomore team ended the game with seven points, meaning the juniors led with 13 points.
Following basketball was the pushup contest—the longest-lasting game. This was played in grade order starting at freshman to seniors. The boy for the freshmen boys team did 40 pushups and the girl for the freshmen girls team did 16. Then, sophomores did 80 pushups altogether, but the juniors set a record high of 160 pushups combined—winning first place as seniors came in at second with 103 pushups.
Following the pushup contest was the human pyramid. The freshman had a rocky start and took the longest amount of time, coming in last place. The sophomores went second and came in second place. Then juniors came in 3rd place as before they could have a successful pyramid, a teammate fell over at the last second. Seniors came in first place once again for building their pyramid the quickest.
Finally, the last game was the tug-of-war finale, much different from the first game with it being seniors against juniors. Once more, the seniors dominated and came in first place in just under ten seconds.
After all the points were calculated, everyone was able to see who the true winners of the 2023 Malden High Annual Pep Rally were. Unsurprisingly, the seniors came in first place with 44.5 points in total, juniors in second with 35.5 total points, freshmen in third place with 26.5 points, and sophomores in last place with 20.5 points in total.
