Author: Henry Meier
Last Friday approximately 800 students gathered in Rush Gymnasium to get pumped up for the autumnal sports season at Occidental and make some noise for all of Tiger athletics at Oxy’s fall pep rally.
The crowd, packed tightly into the bleachers of the gym, roared with approval for both the Occidental Cheer Squad and Dance Team performances. They cheered heartily as representatives from each Fall sports team gave an update on their seasons. And they waved their “Terrible Tiger Towels” fervently for Emcees Brittany Banbury (senior) and Meredith Martin-Almy (senior), who oversaw the proceedings.
While the event lasted only a little over an hour, the planning for it was not such a short process. Much of the impetus for the event came from Allison Truscheit ’08, Oxy’s new Dance and Cheer coach.
“The idea for the pep rally came about because we wanted a way to get everyone spirited about Oxy Athletics,” Truscheit said. “We want more people coming to games. We wanted student athletes to be excited about other teams besides their own. We wanted to recognize the hard work and dedication of club sports who don’t always receive that kind of recognition, and we wanted to show how fun it can be to have a ton of school spirit.”
Once the motives behind the pep rally were in place the real work began. “The pep rally had to be approved by everyone: the Director of club sports, the Athletic Director, the Campus Events Advisory Committee,” Truscheit said. “There were meetings with SAAC [Student Athletic Advisory Committee], KOXY, the Director of Student Life… the list goes on. The entire process took about a month and a half.”
All the planning seemed more than worth it to the students who attended the event.”I think the pep rally was a great way to kick off the fall season of athletics here at Oxy and I hope the event happens again next semester as well,” football team captain Anthony Ostland (senior) said. “I also find that it is a great way to create awareness of what is going on at Oxy and hopefully increase the fan base at various sporting events.”
The performers also enjoyed doing their routines in front of such an enthusiastic crowd.
“It was exhilarating fun!” dance team member Jennifer Goth (junior) said. “It was really great to finally show the Oxy student body what we can do! We have definitely been very eager to shake what we got!”
With such a successful debut, there seem to be some definite plans for another pep rally. “We are planning on having another rally in the spring, hopefully near basketball playoffs!” Truscheit said. “We want to recognize winter and spring sports, probably in late February.”
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