Woodbridge Middle School students and faculty gathered together in the auditorium for a pep rally on September 29, 2017 for the baseball and softball teams.

After the rally, Dr. Crowe, principal of WMS, was asked how he felt about the recent event and its impact on the teams. He replied, “Both teams are well prepared, well coached and have talent.” He continued with saying that’s why “we play the game.”

Ricky Nagy, a 7th grade baseball player said “I feel school pep rallies are very motivating because everyone was more into the game and we should do them more often because it gets everyone including the team hyped up.” Other students agree saying they “think it was a hit and really fun.”

On the other hand, students say it is too loud and a bit boring. Anthony Ciaccio said the T-Shirt toss was “a bit aggravating” because it should have been thrown to each grade. Others, such as eighth graders Olivia Viggiano and Jayson Bradley say the teams should play “silly little fun games.” This is in reference to a pep rally held two years ago where the teams competed against each other on stage with a mini-basketball game

Dr. Crowe commented “we can try to throw t-shirts to each section, but that’s if we do them again, but the lesson here is that we need to be happy for those who got a t-shirt.”

Mr. Harris said he “enjoyed” that the pep rallies are at the end of the day because it’s “something different.” He implied, “a way I would change it is by recognizing all the teams, maybe the old ones and the new ones and by trying to get a middle school soccer team going.”

When David Bromirski, 6th grader, was asked how he felt about the pep rally, he responded with, “Good, because it shows more pride for our teams than elementary school,” He added, “and I want to try out for baseball and basketball because I would be really proud of myself if I make it.”

Elise Gurovich; a prize winner during the 2017 pep rally felt “embarrassed” when she was called up onto the stage and added, “my friends tried stealing my candy and my parents were over-dramatic about it.” On the other hand, Shannon Muldowny, another prize-winner, commented, “I wasn’t nervous and when I told my parents they were happy for me along with my friends and they were also excited.”

85% of the students interviewed commented that they like the school pep rallies. The remaining 15% disliked it for the reasons cited above.

Mr. Blasena, one of the organizers of the Pep Rally, said, “Pep Rallies are meant to be exciting school wide events; fun for everyone. The hardest part of organizing these events is making sure all students are entertained and respectful. For future events, I will be taking student concerns/requests more into consideration.” Overall, this pep rally was a definite success.