The Mycenaean

Leesville Road High School held its first pep rally since my freshman year. As a 14-year-old, fresh out of middle school, the homecoming week’s hype was unmatched. Between the pep rally, spirit week, the parade, and the other homecoming festivities, it was the ultimate introduction to high school. 

This year I was expecting a super fun and engaging pep rally, similar to what I remember from my freshman year. Granted, was three years ago, however, I remember looking up to the older kids thinking how fun high school looked and how I couldn’t wait for the next four years. I admired how much spirit they had and how much it looked like they loved their school. 

I was excited for fun music from the band and chorus, great performances from the dance team and the cheerleaders, and an exciting intro to get us all hype for our homecoming and first home game of the season. 

There were parts of this year’s pep rally that were super fun, but I felt like the underclassmen didn’t really understand the hype. 

This year’s pep rally started out with the marching band playing and welcoming all the students as they filed into the gym. The dance team performed a dance and the varsity and jv cheerleaders showcased their “competition” routine.

The homecoming court was introduced and walked across the gym. The student section leaders and the football team hyped up the students with Leesville traditions such as the roller coaster and roll call. My very favorite part of the whole pep rally was the drumline. The hype from the drumline is unmatched. 

Classes of ‘24, ‘25 and ‘26 haven’t had a pep rally before.  They didn’t get to learn from the older grades like my class did. Covid hit hard in so many ways, including crushing down on school spirit. 

Taking the students out of the school and putting them on zoom not only disengaged the student body but took away the sense of family and pride within the school.

The underclassmen never got the same taste of highschool as the class of 23’ did our freshmen year. 

This year the leaders of our student section, The Loonies, have done a great job of trying to bring back what was lost during the time off for covid.

The student section on Instagram posts information about games and themes to engage the younger classes and try to get them more involved. They start and lead cheers at football games and soon will do the same for basketball games. 

I think one of the ultimate goals of our class is to bring back the spirit of the LRHS alumni. We want to bring back and rekindle that flame that went out as a result of covid.

I think it’s really important that we get the younger classes more involved because for me it was the most fun and exciting part of the high school experience.