As a student body, it is extremely important for us to show our support for our school and come together as a community for our teams during their most important games of the season.

Before the pep rally started, our WCHS Marching Patriots, led by Drum Majors Vinh Le, Dylan Livingston-Keeter, and Avery Stroud, played some of their pep band tunes and our WCHS varsity cheerleaders performed some of their cheers and stunts as people were entering the gym and finding their seats. Thank you to both the band and cheerleaders for the fabulous entertainment, your school pride and spirit do not go unnoticed! 

To start the pep rally, the WCHS Singers sang the national anthem, conducted by Psy Howard. As always, they did an amazing job. After the national anthem, the varsity football team made their grand entrance as the band played the West Carteret fight song. Among the football team were captains: Brock Askey, Noah Anderson, Jaxon Lawerence, and Lamar Teel. Varsity football player, Qwyli Reaves, said, “I liked how the football players ran into the gym and were celebrated by the entire school. Seeing the players and students interacting in the games and showing their support was really fun.”

Next is the really fun part, the games! The first game was the mullet toss. For the mullet toss, we had four teams, each team representing a different grade with six people on each team. The mullet toss game is a relay-style game where the teams have to pass “mullets” from person to person down the line with pool noodles. As a spectator, I found the game very entertaining and funny. Watching some of my closest friends throw fake fish at each other with pool noodles and scrambling to pick them up when they dropped them was very amusing. Patriot Press Co-Editor in Chief and mullet toss participant Sally King hilariously stated, “Holding those noodles, I really felt the power of the patriots before me cheering me on.” While the game was super close, the sophomores ended up coming out on top! The other game that we played was Tug Of War. The first game was Freshmen vs. Sophomores, with the Freshmen completely annihilating the Sophomores (sorry sophomores). The second game was the Juniors vs. Seniors, with a similar scenario happening in the Seniors’ favor. Junior team member Destiny Howell described this matchup in a very self-confident way, saying “Honestly, I knew we were going to lose, but it was still very fun.”. The final game was the Freshmen vs. Seniors, with the seniors coming out on top! Personally, I loved having the Freshmen go against the Seniors for the win, it felt like everything came full circle.

Of course we love all the games and fun times, but everyone’s favorite part of the pep rally is of course Coach Barrow’s speech. Coach Barrow repeated the phrase “They wanna know” as he delivered his amazing speech and pep talk about the importance of the school spirit and what it means to show support for our school and community. His speech is my personal favorite part of the pep rally and I look forward to listening to what he has to say. Coach Barrow has a way of getting crowds hyped up for things that I really enjoy. The “They Wanna Know” speech was a great way to end such an amazing event. As everyone exited the gym, the Marching Patriots and varsity cheerleaders once again gave us some great entertainment to close out the pep rally. 

Pep rallies are by far the best way, in my opinion, to show support for our school and get everyone involved in a way that feels both inviting and celebratory. Senior varsity cheerleader, Sadie Anthony, elaborates on this idea and says, “I think the pep rally is a really great way to get everyone together and get the patriot spirit especially before the Mullet Bucket. I think we need to do them more for things like homecoming and other events to get that same spirit going year round.” I would love to see more pep rally style events incorporated into our student life and social calendar, because it does so much for our teams and community. 

More statements about the pep rally from members of the student body:

• “I thought it was a fun, hype event to get ready to play our biggest rivals at the biggest game in our county. So glad the bucket stays!!!” -Sam Huber, WCHS Junior Class President 

• “The pep rally was really fun and inspiring for people to get their patriot pride up. With the whole school in the gym, we realized how big the Patriot Militia was and why we have such a good sports program.” -Avery Stroud, WCHS Marching Patriots Sophomore Drum Major

• “The exhilarating speech from Barrow really hyped me and everyone else up because of how inspiring it was.” -Lamont Jones, WCHS Junior Council Member and Pep Rally Section Leader

• “I thought the pep rally was very unifying. It brings us together to do a single task of cheering each other on and lets us do fun things.” -Hunter McCall, Freshman Band Member