On Friday, August 23, the first ever rally of the school year was performed. Students celebrated the excelling academic students and the amazing sports teams to come. This rally was an intro to all the rallies to come showing school spirit, the academic capabilities of students, and the athletes.

The rally started off with intense rumbling music and all the kids buzzed to be in the Ayala gym once again. With freshmen being there for their first rally and other grade levels getting back into the school year, many students were looking forward to what was in store for them. As people were getting settled in and ready, the curtains opened and out came Ayala Dance Production (ADP) and Song group with amazing performances. However, with this being the first rally of the school year, the United Student Body (USB) class also saw some areas of improvement for future rallies. 

“I think that we could have probably been more organized because we didn’t have lots of time to prep,” Madelynn Tsai (9) USB member said. “We really had trouble with time management and trying to prepare the rally on time.”

Since the USB students were met with lots of constraints, the students who were expecting more preperation were disappointed. Especially with this being the freshman’s first rally, they had bigger expectations and wanted more school spirit to be shown.

“I thought the rally would be more energetic and fun, but I think the decor was nice and put together,” Kaylyn Wee (9) said. “I was just expecting a little more student participation, games, and maybe even some better spirit wear for people to participate in.”

Many students also felt that promotion, like the spirit week for the rally, could have been more publicized or more interactive.

“I feel that we could have advertised the spirit wear more because I feel like not everybody knew about them, and they didn’t really try to get involved with it. They didn’t try to publicize the spirit wear as much as they could,” Wee said.  

In addition to the “Jumanji” rally being the first one of the school year, this rally was also the first one that new USB Advisor Mrs. Haley Thompson had worked with the USB class on. 

“With this being my first year, I knew there would be a lot of expectations,” Thompson said. “I wanted to make sure that I met all of those expectations. The biggest thing has been just trying to communicate with people as much as possible.”

Because Mrs. Thompson was hired right before school started,  ideas had to flow during the making of the rally instead of being planned in advance. With the combination of adjusting to a new advisor and a delay on a set theme, many students agree that there is still room left to grow. This contributed to the rally which also made it seem like not the best. 

“It’s a lot of work to set up all the things for the rally. I think one of the biggest things that I’ve noticed is just the organization and making sure that everyone knew what their jobs were,” Thompson said.

The rally ended with all classes saying their Bulldog Spell-Out. Even though each grade showed off their own great performances, the Class of 2025 were the loudest, showing off their enthusiasm and energy as this was their last first school rally.

Even with the short amount of time given, the USB students had worked hard to make this happen, making it enjoyable the first time for freshmen and starting off another great school year for returning students. We can only look forward to what else the USB class has in store as they prepare future rallies.

“I hope that everyone had fun and seeing all the different performers made them excited for the next few upcoming rallies,” Thompson said.