Preparation Posts Memorable Rally

Leadership hosted the annual Spring rally, introducing the boys’ basketball team before the CIF [California Interscholastic Federation] State Championship game. This was the third rally of the year, and was held in the big gym on March 26.

The rally started with “Weekend Update,” a faux newscast mimicking Saturday Night Live‘s classic weekly sketch. Senior Leadership students Mary Hildeburn and Brendan Dooley made jokes about various students and teams on campus. For example, one of the jokes mentioned the lack of support for the boys’ tennis team.

Leadership advisor Dino Petrocco said that the jokes were cleared in advance. “I thought that the jokes were great. We cleared it with everybody, to make sure that they were okay with it. We did not want to come off as being mean-spirited,” he said.

Junior Leadership student and next year’s ASB president Cameron Atwood enjoyed the Weekend Update. “It was very good. Mary Hildeburn put a lot of effort into it and it all turned out extraordinary,” he said.

Junior Austin Clarke enjoyed the newscast. “The jokes at the start were really funny. The jokes were things that people could relate to,” he said.

After the newscast, selected students participated in a complicated obstacle game.

Following the obstacle game, Leadership introduced the entire State-bound boys’ basketball team.

According to sophomore Leadership student Ryan McCormick, the introduction of the basketball team was exciting. “In my opinion, the best part of the rally was the intro of the basketball players with the strobe lights and having everybody jumping up and down,” he said.

Clarke, who is a starter for the boys’ basketball team, enjoyed the player introductions. “It was cool running out in front of the school. It was a really exciting way to get pumped up for the game,” he said.

Atwood said that the success of the rally was due to strong preparation. “We planned way in advance and Mary [Hildeburn] and Brendan [Dooley] put a lot of effort coming up with the creative jokes. We were able to execute them well,” he said.

McCormick enjoyed the rally. “This has been the bast rally of the year because of all of the preparation, performing, and having everything run smoothly [sic],” he said.

Atwood agreed, “I think this was one of the better rally’s that we have done in a long time. As I have said before, all of the effort that we put in was the execution of a great rally.”