On April 22, MLWGS students and faculty assembled for the second pep rally of the year to celebrate the accomplishments of spring and winter sports, and to showcase Maggie Walker’s school spirit! Before the pandemic, MLWGS typically had three pep rallies: one for fall sports, one for winter sports, and one for spring sports. This year, however, the school was unable to host the winter sports pep rally, due an outbreak of the Omicron variant of COVID. Instead, the SCA merged the spring and winter sports pep rallies into one in order to recognize both seasons, which came as a significant improvement to completely canceling the winter pep rally and managed to include every sport from both the winter and spring season in a time crunch.

However, many students still had doubts about holding the pep rally inside, particularly towards safety regarding the possible spread of COVID-19 with the vast majority of the school population sitting indoors in very close quarters. For a lot of freshmen, this was the first indoor pep rally they had attended. The fall pep rally was outdoors in an attempt to social distance.

However, the majority of freshmen agreed that the indoor pep rally was definitely an improvement. The students were piled into the bleachers, and though it was a tight fit, it was much easier to feel the abundance of energy and spirit from the student body. Freshman Max Whealton stated, “It was surprising because I didn’t expect to be so crazy. At my old school, people didn’t seem to care [about school spirit]. Everyone seemed to be in spirit and really into it.”  

The pep rally lifted spirits and provided a way for the school to come together and enjoy themselves after a long winter before the stress of testing season. It also was the perfect send-off for senior athletes and provided the entirety of the school with a taste of post-pandemic normalcy.