Starting off with a bang, the drumline of Norristown High School welcomed students and staff to the 2019 Winter Pep-rally. Ribbons of blue and white filled the gym along with star-shaped balloons, and the students who entered were immediately treated to another tremendous Blue & White production.   

As the students began to take over the bleachers in the gym, the drumline performed spectacularly with cheerleader accompaniment.  As the noise died down, Principal Ed Roth delivered a quick announcement about the winter sports. Once he finished his announcement, the JROTC students entered, standing tall, ready for their drill; Mrs. Danoff and her select choir sang the anthem beautifully, filling the gym with their melodious voices for a short while. The drum line, however, concluded the opening ceremony, getting the crowd ready for a spectacular show from the cheerleaders.

The girls began their routine flips, tricks, and cheer. As the cheerleaders finished up their routine, hosts Nyra Rice-Catchings and Aiyanna Parrish, each donning senior black, announced the first game of the event: Skin the Snake.

Neil Schaefer, English teacher, called students who had been selected for the game down onto the gym court. Students were not allowed let go of one another. The goal of the game was to be able to get all people from your team down onto the floor and up again without letting go of one another’s hands. After a few minutes, a team was able to successfully finish and win the game, and they were rewarded with t-shirts.

As the contestants of the game all got back to their seats, it was time to announce the winter sports. First on the list was Track and Field. The wrestling team, bowling team, girls’ basketball each followed in that order, leading to the grand finale: your playoff boys’ basketball team. The seniors on the team rushed through the banner, ripping it apart. The boys took to the court shooting hoops, and hilariously enough, they missed all their first tries. Hopefully they don’t take that strategy into tonight’s game against Pennridge.  The crowd laughed and cheered alongside the team.

This brought about the 3 point contest! The boys scored 15 3-pointers, and the girls scored 12 . Then the two teams faced each other. The boys team won with 19 points.

After the ridiculously funny teacher’s basketball game–let’s leave this game to the kids–  it was time for the second game, Hungry Hippos. Mr. Shafer delivered the rules: hippos (the players) must be on scooters. Their teammate must hold onto their legs, helping drag them around as they collect balloons with baskets.

It was quite a shock to see how competitive many of the students and teachers were as they were furiously dragging their teammates around, collecting balloons. After a hilarious couple of minutes, the teacher’s team was announced as winners, and I’m sure nobody would dispute that.

Then, the long awaited Norristown Area High School step-team arrived.

The whole performance was step-tastical (sorry), beating with school spirit. The team also got the crowd shouting, “N-Town-Step.” The performance ended with the team dancing to music. The audience cheered loudly throughout the performance, which left many students ecstatic.

The third game was the obstacle course. Students and teachers who were chosen for this game gathered down onto the court. All players were split into two teams. The obstacle began with a bat spin, followed by a scooter race through a zig-zag of cones.Then, participants hopped over bowling pins. After getting themselves extremely dizzy and maybe ever a bit nauseous on yet another bat-spin, racers jumped over and crawled under hurdles, finally shooting a basketball into a hoop.

As the pep-rally was coming to an end, there was one more important announcement to be made before the final event. As per tradition, our lovely hosts announced this year’s Mr. Norristown contestants!

The winter pep rally concluded with with a dodgeball game of epic proportions.  Students and teachers who had been picked all rushed down to the court in excitement. The two teams charged ahead and collected their balls, hurling them at their opponents fast and hard. In a few seconds, many students and teachers were eliminated. After a few more minutes past, it was 7-2, with Ramir Wiggins and Dominic Proietto up again a collective of teachers and students. Then Ramir was eliminated, and Proietto morphed into LeBron James, one man left standing, determined to win. Taking his opponents out one at a time to cheers and applause from the crows, LeBron finally won the game! The crowd went crazy, cheering loudly for the dodgeball hero.

As the pep-rally died down a bit, Mr. Roth came out, ready to let the students leave and return to their classes, but before they were announced to leave, Mr. Roth thanked those who were involved with the pep-rally, the Blue and White society, Madame Jen Shahin, and Ms. Kate Bartlett for making this event a fantastic way of ending the winter sport season.