Every few months like clockwork, hundreds of Wilcox students file listlessly into the main gym. The sheer boredom emanating from their faces cause teachers and peers alike to question if they’re all secretly zombies.
What dreary event are students attending you may ask? Put simply, it’s the sports spirit rallies. For years, they’ve been a staple at Wilcox, but I believe it’s healthy to re-evaluate school traditions from time to time. School spirit rallies are ultimately inefficient because both students and athletes have clearly expressed that they are a waste of time.
1. Students dislike them
We are creatures of habit, and a common pet peeve amongst humans is messing with our daily routine. With the rallies shortening periods (and to the inconvenient number of 46 minutes at that), the different class schedule can cause major grumblings. It’s especially disorienting given lunch occurs right after third period, instead of fourth, throwing a wrench in people’s normal habits. The second half of the school day also seems to drag on sluggishly; the “extra” period after lunch makes regular classwork appear much more tedious than usual.
Most students also yawn through the rallies themselves. There is a peculiar dichotomy in the main gym; the music blaring through the speakers is often so ear-splitting, students everywhere are flinching to cover their ears. Junior Vedant Garg jokes, “volume control could be a thing.” However, the supposed “hype” music does little to hide the fact that most students barely clap when the athletes are recognized. Instead, a sea of eye-rolls, blank expressions and slouched forms fill the stands. Garg mentions, “As an audience member…I don’t really have anything to do. Besides, like playing Brawl Stars.”
2. Athletes find them pointless
While one would think athletes enjoy the recognition they receive from these sports rallies, many of them feel embarrassed and exposed as they walk down the gym. In fact, some athletes don’t even show up to walk, ostracizing the remaining walking athletes who are subject to more individualized attention.
Moreover, rallies usually happen in the middle of the competitive sports season. Typically, teams have only competed in a few games before the rally rolls around, fostering a sense that the recognition is premature and slightly forced; after all, no team has accomplished anything spectacular quite yet. It doesn’t help that all the teams’ introductions during the rally sound nearly identical, making the supposed cheerful celebration extremely monotonous.
Varsity badminton team member Shreya Patil adds on, “The motive behind wanting to celebrate the athletes is really nice, but I think the rallies itself are unnecessary because they don’t really hold any value…instead there could be better ways to recognize student athletes.”
3. So….what’s the alternative?
Instead of inconveniencing both students and staff for an assembly no one really asked for, it’s way less time consuming to simply make two quality Instagram posts. The first one can list all the different sports teams for the season, displaying each team members’ name and identifying the captain(s) of each team. The second post can happen later in the season, recapping all the impressive accomplishments certain teams have achieved (going to CCS etc). These two Instagram posts do what the school spirit rallies aim to do without any of the hassle and deafening noise.
Overall, while the general consensus from the student body is that rallies are pointless, there are still parts people enjoy. Junior Michelle Wu explains, “rallies are fun sometimes…it’s fun seeing [ASB] get pied and stuff like that.” The rallies are meant to revitalize school spirit, but perhaps we’ve been going about it all wrong. Maybe all it really takes is pieing a couple more people in the face.
