Got Spirit? Let’s Hear it!

Pep rallies can be a useful, fun, and motivating tool.

At Treynor, we try to use pep rallies as a motivator for sports, as well as life in general. We use these opportunities to encourage the student body to excel and maximize their potential in their schoolwork, sports, and in all of life.

Our pep rallies are organized and run by the varsity cheerleaders. The emcee is an upperclassman cheerleader. In order to keep the student’s attention, we try to keep the activities moving and not allow any time for the audience to get distracted. In order to do this, we practice everything about the pep rally ahead of time. We practice running on and off the floor with spirit. We practice the cheers, using the microphone, and the game or skit for the day. We even simulate the band and motivational speaker during our practice time. We write out an itinerary and give it to everyone involved in pep rally that day, plus the principal and the athletic director in order to keep everyone informed and everything flowing smoothly.

Typically we follow a general plan for the pep rallies, although we do feel free to change things around, so we don’t get too predictable. A typical itinerary would look like this:

Band playing selection of songs

Cheer

Cheer with stunt

Words from captain of team

Cheer-competition between sections

Game or Skit

Cheer

Motivational Speaker (teacher/coach)

Fight Song.

We try to keep our eyes open for fun games and skits that we think our students would enjoy. Two things we are sure of- they like competition and they love candy! We use immediate gratification with candy, frisbees, mini footballs, etc. for the winning team during the game or the loudest section during the cheers. For seating during pep rallies, we have the gym divided into three sections. This lends well to sectional competitions for the loudest group during the cheers. The sections that we use are: Junior High,

Underclassmen, and Upperclassmen.

It’s always fun to include students from different groups in the games. The groups we have identified include: Class officers, Band, School Play, Speech Team, Volleyball team, Cross Country, Football, etc.

One of our favorite games is called "Ship and Sailors". Usually there are four students from an identified group or club (don’t forget a group of teachers-the students love to watch them!). When the cheerleader gives a command, the group reacts with a certain activity. The commands and responses are listed below:

Ships-run to the right

Sailors-run to the left

Five Men Pointing-five people in a line pointing

Four Men Eating-four people in a circle eating

Three Men Rowing-three people in a line pretending to row a

boat

Captain’s Coming-stand at attention until "at ease" is called

At ease- may relax the "Captain’s coming position and continue to follow other commands

Bunk Beds- first person lays on their back on the floor while second person is over them (bottom partner’s arms hold partner’s ankles in the air)

Man Overboard-one person on hands and knees and the other one has one foot on partner’s back

The players walk around on the gym floor until the cheerleader gives a command. At that point, the players must get into small groups and do the response that is called for. You are out of the game if you can’t fit into a group. We keep playing until we have only two to three people left in the game.

Usually a practice round is played first if time permits. The crowd is encouraged to cheer on their friends. We do this game annually due to its popularity among the student body.

Another fun game is "20 Questions". Each player sits in a chair in the center of the gym. The chairs have been prearranged into a circle. The questions might say something like this:

"If you have ever gotten a speeding ticket, move one chair to the left"

"If you have been the top scorer in any game this year, move three chairs to the right"

"If your mother woke you up this morning, move two chairs to the left".

Some of the players won’t move. The ones who do move will either get an empty chair or have to sit on the player’s lap who is already in the chair. Questions can be personal or about the current sport. This game causes a lot of laughs and helps fans to learn more about the individual players.

On pep rally day, it may be fun to have a specific theme. To help this along, you can put a short statement in the school announcements to get the student body wondering what might be coming later in the day. For instance, "Wrap up a Win tonight, boys!" might be publicized in the school announcements. On that day, you will have a contest between 3 small groups to wrap the coaches up with toilet paper during the pep rally. This can be done as a contest between the three groups.

It is important for the cheerleaders to have fun, so they can portray their attitude and energy to the crowd. The student body’s support is needed at games, and having good pep rallies is a great way to build that support and a good relationship with the fans. Pep rallies can motivate us to achieve more in all areas of our lives. Be sure the motivational speaker for the day knows your plans, so they can add to the theme for the day.

Marcia Lippert

Varsity and Junior High Cheer Coach

Treynor Community School

Treynor, Iowa