Students Show School Spirit At E/a Pep Rally
Admist the darkness, a sea of red steadily expands with voices magnifying and echoing into the night. Vuvuzelas sound. The crowd whoops, and the high-stacked pile of wood erupts into a massive ball of flame, illuminating the visages of 14 seniors with faces and bodies painted blood red. They run around the center of the huddle, letting out blood curdling chants. One stands before the fire and thrusts the Exeter flag high in the air, letting it ripple in the wind. The crowd bursts into cheers. Exeter/Andover (E/a) weekend commences.
Students and faculty partook in a series of festive events this past Friday evening to pump up school spirit leading up to the fall E/a games on Saturday. The night begun at 6:30 p.m. with the snake dance, which started at Main Street Hall and wound through the entire campus, picking up students along the way toward the bonfire by the softball field. The bonfire was lit at 6:45 p.m., where the red bandits led the student body in several preliminary cheers. The heat of the fire was palpable, throbbing in the air like the energy of the students.
Many enjoyed the spirit of the bonfire and praised it as a great way to start the night. “We beat our chests and chanted and got lit up. It was beautiful,” senior Antonio Guanaes said. “It made me feel like a character in Braveheart, decked in full red regalia circling the fire blown violent by the wind.”
Reflecting Guanaes’ excitement, senior and red bandit Kendall Kuzminskas described that overall, everyone was really spirited at the bonfire, smiling and taking photos. She added that the sheer size and intensity of the fire had a thrilling effect, fueling up the student body.
“I think my favorite part of the bonfire was that it got so big that it almost hit the trees behind it,” Kuzminskas said. “Obviously it would have been bad if the trees had caught on fire, but because they didn’t, it was cool. Also, if you looked back at the fire on the bridge, it looked like the river was on fire.”
Energized by the bonfire, students proceeded towards the stadium for the pep rally, which featured the fall sports teams and student dance groups such as Beat of Asia (BOA), Imani and POMS. There, the red bandits taught several additional school cheers.
Experiencing the E/a pep rally for her first time, prep Anna Clark said it was a great bonding experience for her and her friends. “We [got to] come together to raise our school spirit. [In addition,] I got to see so many of my peers perform in order to promote school pride and unity.”
Student Council (StuCo) President and senior Rebecca Ju also praised the sports teams’ and dance troupes’ performances, especially BOA’s, which received a standing ovation. “I was really surprised to see BOA—they really stepped it up and had a great performance. I’m happy the crowd was so supportive of them since they hadn’t performed at pep rally before,” Ju said.
On the other hand, despite the efforts to promote school spirit, several students felt that student energy and school pride waned. Guanaes described the audience as “apathetic” and “stiff.”
Over the past year, many students have criticized the student body for lacking school spirit. Despite those complaints, several remarked that the student body made no improvement when offered the opportunity this past weekend.
Senior Pranay Vemulamada criticized the pervading “laziness” from crowd. “I definitely have seen a distinct lack of [spirit] among the student body this year,” Vemulamada said. “For example, a lot of students didn’t dress in their class’ colors for Spirit Week. Also, not many people went all out for E/a.”
Some students attributed the unresponsiveness of the audience to a lack of stimulating activities and diverse cheers. “We could have had more stuff to hype us up rather than having similar performances over and over,” prep Aaron Baez said.
Senior Mei-An Nolan countered this response, explaining that many of the red bandits’ cheers were cut off by time restrictions at the pep rally or prohibited by the administration for “inappropriateness.” Nolan said, “Any time [an old, prohibited cheer] happened, we weren’t allowed to join in. We were warned that if we led anything inappropriate, it could lead to some serious repercussions.”
Ju further explained that allowing hurtful cheers did not align with the sportsmanship that Exeter promotes. Instead, Ju proposed that students shift their perspective and take spirit into their own hands.
“I think we talked so much about improving spirit that we got it into our heads that we didn’t have any spirit. [Instead], the crowd could take control and everyone could contribute to increasing spirit rather than solely depending on the red bandits,” Ju said.
Although many believed the students could have had been more spirited, many still viewed the E/a experience as a positive experience overall. “I wish there had been more energy in the student body. [But,] I still loved being able to stand up, scream and go crazy for all the teams and dance groups,” Vemulamada said.