The immense cheering of the Mustangs breaks through the auditorium homecoming day as the student athletes begin the pep assembly. Athletic Director Matt Thede kicked off the assembly by reminding us of the passion for athletics the Mount Vernon High School has as it continues to run deep into our alumni showing great appreciation and pride for the place they came from, belong, and have fought for. The cheers turn into chants the cheerleaders lead to unite the athletes and the community showing the importance of teamwork, school spirit, and friendship.
To help build those characteristics the Mustang student athletes performed a few light hearted games. Initially the football players and cross country competed in a game that required teamwork. They would line up in a single file line and hold each other’s hands between their legs and try to get their teammate to go in between each student’s legs, the fastest to win. Some of the offensive lineman were having trouble keeping the line together resulting in the cross country team being the victors.
Following that game the middle and elementary students wanted to see if they could do the same game, but faster than the older students. Then student athletes would hop on skates with toilet plungers to propel themselves towards a cone down the court and back for a relay race. They also played a game where you would throw pantyhose at a bottle containing a ball on their fellow teammate’s head to score points.
The appreciation for the countless alumni members and pep rallies has only seem to have grown stronger to me over the years. The hype has seemed to show a slight change. Some students, parents and fans remain seated or do not participate in some of the fight songs or chants we do. Some alumni in the crowd are much more passionate than some of the younger students. Although the hype surrounding the student athletes isn’t at its best, the energy and adrenaline rush of the roaring cheers MV students unleash is still felt by many of the student athletes.
An original cheer made by the cheerleaders was first set in motion at the pep assembly this year, the cheerleaders would engage each school level, elementary through high school, in a chant for a competition to see who was the most energetic. Chloe Bunch, a sophomore cheerleader stated,” I think making it a competition makes each school level perform higher than it would normally be when cheering altogether as a district.”
To finish the assembly we all contributed in the well known fight song starting off with the band then quickly the cheers spread throughout the auditorium resembling the starting of the assembly with the immense roar of the Mount Vernon Mustangs.
