It’s football season, and that means pep rallies are in the works. Students are shouting and cheering on our football players and teams. Teachers and Assistant Principals are standing on the sidelines of the gym. The Leander Band is standing on the opposite side of the gym from the teachers holding their instruments waiting to play the school song.

But some students prefer going to the “anti-pep rally.” The anti-pep rally gives students the option to hang out in the small gym to chat with their friends and listen to their own music. The pep rally gives students the opportunity to get excited for the upcoming football game. Most students think the anti-pep rally should remain an option for everyone who doesn’t wish to attend the pep rally.

“Students should continue having a choice in which pep rally they go to,” sophomore Mark Johnson said. “It’s a place where everyone just gets to chill.”

Some students have a neutral opinion on the anti-pep rally.

“As long as it’s supervised better than it is now, it should still be an option,” sophomore Ian Garcia said. “Most people see school as school so they’d rather do something else than shout. Some others who attend [the anti-pep rally] also see it as a time to mess around and act stupid.”

Some students think the anti-pep rally should be abolished completely.

“I think people should go to the pep rallies because it shows school spirit and I’ve heard bad things go on at the anti-pep rallies,” sophomore Rebecca Prater said. “I feel like it’s just a place for kids to get away with things like e-cigs and profane words.”

In our middle school years, we never had the option, so students enjoy exercising this freedom. Students believe that many of the kids who attend the anti-pep rally don’t lack school spirit.

“I think those students have school spirit, [but] they would just rather not express it through a pep rally,” sophomore Nicholas Cooksey said. 

There are some students who are in different clubs and organizations who prefer the anti-pep rally as well.

“Half of Mane Force goes to the anti-pep rally,” junior Noah Zamora said. “And we have a ton of school spirit. The anti-pep rally is a period of time where you can see everyone you want to see in one place.”

Mane Force is an organization involved in varsity football games. They help set up the inflatable football helmet that is used when the players run onto the field at the beginning of the game.

Some students have different reasoning behind them choosing to attend the anti-pep rally, besides the fact they would rather not express their school spirit through a pep rally.

“I think most people who choose not to go to the pep rally, don’t go simply because they don’t enjoy it,” junior Trey Karnes said. “I think it’s too loud and I just don’t enjoy it.”

At the actual pep rally, the Blue Belles perform a dance or hip-hop routine, the band plays the school song and other selections of music, and every grade level competes with chants for the Spirit Stick.

“I like pep rallies better,” sophomore Stephanie Bolding said. “They give me school spirit and especially make me want to go the next football game. But anti-pep rallies are a good way for people to relax and be on their own though.”

Students believe they shouldn’t be required to attend the actual pep rally.

“It would be hard to fit 1000 kids in that gym, and sitting next to people you don’t know is awkward” sophomore Cara Berger said. “And the pep rallies just aren’t that fun for some kids.”

The anti-pep rally is said to have been around since 2009 to 2010, according to former Leander High School student, Addison Wix, who graduated in 2013.

“It was started by all the students who didn’t want to listen to the band and the yelling of teenagers,” Wix said. “We started it my freshman year I think.”

Leander High School students are a lucky group because a lot of schools don’t have pep rallies. But whether or not students choose to attend the pep rally, a great amount of students attend the following football game and support our football players, band, dance team, cheerleaders and other students, and that’s what matters most.