Pep rallies are amongst the favorite activities for Hollis Brookline High School students– those few special times a year when all grades are brought together to play games, show their school spirit, and just have fun with their peers. One of these special activities is coming up– the Halloween pep rally. In the past month, the Class of 2027 has been working hard to plan this event, organizing the games, music and all of the other moving parts that go with it. 

The Halloween pep rally is typically the second pep rally of the year, featuring many beloved halloween-themed games, and the annual costume contest. But there is another aspect of this specific pep rally that differentiates it from others; the Halloween pep rally is traditionally the first pep rally that the junior class gets to plan, as a sort of test run for planning the pep rallies senior year. 

“It’s definitely a lot more than we’re used to as juniors, considering that it’s the first activity that we plan, like a large-scale activity, besides our skit during spirit week,” said Mary Robinson ‘27, Junior Class Representative.

Planning has been going on since mid-September, after Hollis Old Homes Days. All of the different parts of the pep rally have to be decided upon and approved by administration, so this has taken up a good chunk of the Class of 2027’s individual meeting time. Fortunately, this has also been the responsibility of every other junior class before them, so they have a lot of knowledge to draw on. 

At the recent Grand Council meeting, the Junior class consulted the seniors on managing aspects of the pep rally, such as entering into the costume contest and the logistics surrounding the playlist, which will of course consist of Halloween classics like ‘Thriller’ and ‘Spooky Scary Skeletons’.

“This year we were talking to [the seniors] a lot because they had a script already filled out that they created, and their timeframes and how they did their music, so using their input and some of the samples of their script was really helpful,” said Mariko Coffey, President of the Class of 2027.

But this year’s pep rally will, of course, have its own fresh ideas from the current junior class, adding on to what they have learned from previous classes. For example, this year, in addition to a routine, the cheerleading squad will also run a game. This was another one of the pieces to plan, for which Coffey communicated with cheer coach Christina Ellis and attended a cheer practice to lock in the details. 

“It’s a lot of communication, I think. Talking to the emcees and figuring out who’s saying what in the script and then having to execute it all,” Coffey said. 

The junior class’s hard work will be on full display this Friday at the pep rally.