As a send off for football team, which advanced to a second consecutive state championship game in Southern California, Leadership hosted a rally at lunch in the gym on December 17.

A video montage of fall season football action was projected. This was followed by speeches from various students.

Senior Leadership officer Yuri Hanley encouraged students to “come down and support the team that they’re proud of. It should be celebrated that the team made it that far and we should support them.”

Senior varsity team member Sterling Strother and head coach Kevin Macy also spoke to the small crowd that gathered in the gym during the lunch period.

“I think they did a specially good job trying to highlight the importance of supporting the team and supporting the fans and families that come down and watch us play. We want to show that our community is strong in terms of sports and commitment and having fans out there is a big part of it,” said fellow senior player Madison Young.

The squad made it to the state title game by virtue of a victory in the Northern California championship game against Milpiatas.

“I think winning against Milpiatas was really cool,” said Young. “Overall we really came together as a team and I think we will share in that brotherhood forever.”

Macy emphasized in his speech the tremendous odds his team would face at the state game and made sure the crowd was aware of what the team had already accomplished over the course of a long season..

“We really came together after our loss earlier in the season against Napa and I think that’s a really a big part of our coming together. Like Coach Macy said, that loss helped us more than a win would have because we really came together after that loss, ” said Young.

The event was sparsely attended. Freshman Sierra Gerard said this was because the rally was not well advertised. “I would change the day to a rally schedule because a lot of people didn’t even know about it and I didn’t know about it,” she said.