ASB kicked off the 2017-18 school year with a Welcome Back Rally held on Friday, August 18th. This was an ongoing event through both A and B lunch. The sole purpose of the rally was to encourage students to have school spirit for the upcoming year.

With the school year getting into gear, the E-board, composed of officers and class presidents, assigned ASB members to either a short-term or long-term committee. The long-term Spirit Committee was chosen to be in charge of coordinating the logistics of the rally. This committee included Brailyn Dicob, Mya Gentry, Amalyn Romero, Brandon Moreno, Brenna Manthey, Caitlin Ritter, Hannah Florez, Ivaane Odoi, and Thomas Douglas.

The committee began to prepare two weeks prior to the rally through meetings of brainstorming for ideas and games. The Junior Varsity Cheer Team, Drumline, football team captains, and Hip-Hop Squad were all chosen to either participate or perform. Once it was settled on who was performing, the committee came to a decision on the sequence of events.

Spirit Commissioners Brailyn Dicob and Mya Gentry discussed the order of the entertainment: “We chose a specific sequence of games and performances to conclude the rally with a performance. Therefore, the order we decided on was each performance would be followed by a game.” The order of performances consisted of a routine performed by Drumline, a singing contest, a dance by the Hip-Hop Squad, a balance game, and a finale performance executed by the Cheer Team.

Natali Layson, a dancer on the Hip-Hop Squad, shared her experience as a performer: “I personally believe that the rally went well. My teammates and I were aware that this would be our first performance to the students of 2017-18, so of course we aimed to perform well and hopefully gain interest from our fellow students to join our team. Overall, the rally at B lunch was more to my liking, mainly because we had great energy from the crowd during all games and all performances.” The captains, Malyca Ambriz and Kaleia Ashley, were responsible for the entire group to learn and perform the three-minute routine. The Hip-Hop team dedicated hours of their time for three weeks to leave a lasting impression on the students.

The primary goal of the event was to provide a fun transition for students beginning the school year and a sense of excitement for the year ahead. Due to the diligent work and effort put in by the Spirit Committee and Teams, the Welcome Back Rally was a great success.