By Laeni Pelzer, Kate Fulk, and Emily Yager

AHS showed its school spirit at the pep rally on Friday, August 16  to kick off the 2013-2014 AHS activities. The cheerleaders put on a pep rally to tie up the first few days of the school year. The goal of the pep rally was to get more students involved and get our lagging school spirit on an incline.

According to cheerleader Kate Fulk, “Our goal was to teach mainly Freshmen who didn’t know the crowd cheers and refresh the whole school on them.”  Seminars, such as Mr. Wood’s, noted that the problem in past years is that students don’t know cheers, therefore don’t participate. They think this also causes separation between those who know cheers and don’t, breaking the community of AHS.

 Along with the crowd cheers being taught, each coach from the fall sports talked about the goals they wish to accomplish this season. Coach Ross talked about “the 12th man”.  The cheerleaders discuss an ongoing t-shirt fundraiser with the theme of “the 12th man”. Coach Ross explained to the AHS student body the meaning of the 12th man by saying, “Including the crowd and cheerleaders as part of our team. They are, with their noise, excitement, and energy, the 12th member of our team on the field. The idea being it takes everyone working together to make our team great.”

 The school’s new pep club, AHS Fuel, were a visual at the pep rally along with the coaches and cheerleaders. The Core members of AHS Fuel wore matching T-shirts and threw beach balls into the crowd in hopes of raising the energy and pep among the students. Also, the band played the school song, Loyalty. While they did so, the color guard and cheerleaders performed their routines.

Friday’s pep rally was a trial run of what to expect at the pep rally on Friday, August 30. Now, Freshman and new students have an idea what happens at AHS pep rallies.