Last Thursday, April 10, 2014 at 9:30 p.m. in the Canavan Arena, students got their game faces on and got their foam fingers and thunderstix out for a night of fun and excitement at the Stevens annual spring pep rally. Hosted by Gear & Triangle, the Stevens Athletics Department, and the SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee), the pep rally was a big event that attracted a crowd of students of varying classes and majors; ready to show off their school spirit.
Upon entering the Schaefer Athletic center, pizza and various snacks were served by the entrance to the Canavan arena. Almost all who came were dressed in their class assigned colors. Freshman had to wear black; Sophomores and 2/5 had to wear grey; Juniors, 3/5, and 4/5 had to wear white; and Seniors had to wear red. The bleachers in the Canavan Arena were split into four sections with these respective categories as well, so that every student would sit with their class peers and cheer together. Foam fingers and thunderstix were given out to students as they headed toward the bleachers.
A lot of student-athletes were present in the pep rally to show their support for the athletics in Stevens and to show school spirit. However, this wasn’t all. One major point of the pep rally involved calling off all athletic teams to honor the captains and seniors of each team for all their hard work and commitment over their years at Stevens.
The other major point of the pep rally involved a lot of fun competition between the classes with various tournaments. During the beginning of the pep rally, students were advised by Sean Richards and Ashley Montufar to “Be nice and loud and keep the energy up.”
To kick off the fun competition between the classes, a relay contest was held first. Several students from each class chose to step up and represent in a relay which involved several activities (including running, leapfrogging, etc.) thrown into one relay race. The relay contest elicited a great deal of cheering and hyped up the students for the next set of tournaments. The seniors won, much to the disgruntlement of the Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors; but everyone was still excited for the next set of events to come. In the meantime, rubber ducks were distributed and thrown around to various students, some students competed to grab these before others.
The second activity between the classes involved a basketball shooting contest, in which the winner would win a Kindle. Any student was invited to step off the bleachers to try shooting a basketball into the hoop from a set distance. Anyone who got the ball in was able to compete in the next round, and anyone who couldn’t was out of the contest. The crowd roared with excitement throughout this contest.
About midway into the pep rally, Quackapella, a Stevens-led vocal group came in to perform. Led by Michael Cahill, Quackapella sung “Africa” and “As Long As You Love Me,” complete with sound effects created by the group’s voices. Most of the students quietly listened, while some were disrespectful and distracted others during Quackapella’s performance.
The contest that drew out the most excitement and cheers occurred in the toilet paper mummy contest, in which three students from each class stepped up. Each of these groups was instructed to have one person in their group stand in the middle; while the two other people (each holding a full roll of toilet paper) wrapped toilet paper around their teammate. The contest was timed, and the goal of the contest was to wrap their teammate with as much toilet paper as possible when time runs out.
At the start of the contest, all teams got down to work. The Freshman team had the unique strategy of orbiting continuously around their teammate while holding the roll of toilet paper. Other teams had some trouble getting the toilet paper to stay on and often “double-rolled” over the person. By the time there was one minute left, everyone in the Canavan Arena roared with excitement, which caused some teams to feel pressure to go faster, which often caused more toilet paper to fall off. By the time the timer was up, the Sophomore and Junior teams were almost complete with their “mummification,” with toilet paper covering the tops of their heads and most of their faces. The Sophomore team took first place in the toilet paper mummy contest, while the Senior team took second place.
The last contest that took place was another basketball contest, which involved the same rules and game mechanics, except that students had to shoot farther away from the curved half circle line (as opposed to the straight half circle line closer to the hoop). This time, most students couldn’t shoot the ball in and the contest progressed through much quickly. With a handful of students left at the second round, each student in the second round tried and failed to shoot the basketball into the hoop. Everyone started cheering for the players in the contest, regardless of their class as nobody managed to make the ball in! At long last, the last person in the line aimed for the hoop…and he scored! The crowd erupted in cheering and thunderstix noises over the last-minute victor; as he walked up to claim his prize, which was a television.
As the pep rally drew to a close, thanks and words of appreciation were given to the Athletic Department and Emily Brandsdorfer, who helped coordinate the pep rally and advertised this event to campus. A sweet gesture of flowers was given to Brandsdorfer, and students left the Canavan Arena energized and happy from the pep rally.
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