On Friday, August 31, the Chamblee Bulldogs had their first pep rally to hype people up for the Chamblee vs. Dunwoody football game later that night.

As students and faculty filed in, the marching band blasted tunes while the cheerleading squad and dance team moved to the beat. There was also a new addition to the opening of the pep rally: Irvin Wardlow, a math teacher, riding a unicycle while juggling.

Once everyone was settled down, Chloe Kaspar, the head of Chamblee SGA, welcomed everyone with a loud “welcome to the first pep rally!”

The spirit squad then led the class spirit competition. The freshman had very little volume, and the sophomores didn’t have much more. The juniors were fairly loud, but it was the seniors that dominated. They continued the tradition of shaking newspapers and chanting “seniors, seniors” over and over again.

When questioned about why the newspaper shaking is a something they alway do, the seniors tended to not really know.

“I don’t know why it is a thing,” said Senior Izzy Yap. “Maybe it is news that we are finally seniors.”

After the roar of the seniors, the cheer squad performed a cheer and a dance to the song “Knuck if You Buck.”

Kara Dole, a sophomore on the JV cheer team, really enjoyed performing in front of everyone and was proud of their hard work.

“We prepared for about two weeks, and I had so much fun because the dance was so sassy with the music,” said Dole.

Next, the fall sports were introduced by their captains. Cross Country announced their top seven boys and girls, Coach Loper introduced the JV and Varsity softball teams, and the volleyball captains introduced their undefeated Varsity team.

The dance team then performed their routine to the song “Choppa Style.”

“I got to get turnt up during the pep rally and just support the bulldogs,” said Morgan Warfield,  a sophomore who has been a member of the dance team for two years.

Another tradition at the Chamblee vs. Dunwoody pep rally is a skit centered around the  Chamblee bulldogs crushing the Dunwoody wildcats. This year, a mystery Chamblee student dressed up as a wildcat from “Dumpwoody,” and two football players dunked the wildcat in the trash can.

“I was supposed to be very theatrical and basically get booed a lot. [Getting hurled into the trash can] was sort of terrifying because I was supposed to be ‘fighting’ against them, but I could feel their grip loosening the more I moved around,” said the wildcat mascot. “Then, one of them wheeled me around a bit. Although I wasn’t supposed to tip the trash can, I fell out and ran around until the bulldog mascot poured fake Gatorade on me.”

The pep rally carried on with two activities with participants from each grade. The first was a relay race with hurdles, a dizzy bat, and a penalty flag toss into the mouth of a bulldog. The other was done by volunteers they picked from the crowd. They had to put their hands behind their backs and eat a donut that was dangling off of a string.

The pep rally concluded with a football huddle in the middle of the gym court and then another spirit contest with one last senior chant.

The Student Government Association [SGA] planned the pep rally on short notice.

“Kaspar and Clark were told about the pep rally pretty late, so SGA only had about a week and a half to plan, which was a bit of a scramble,” said Claire Turney, the sophomore vice president. “We suggested ideas for activities during our weekly meeting and pieced together the final schedule over the Facebook page.”

Overall, the pep rally received mixed reviews.

“My favorite part of the pep rally was watching [my friend] dress up as the Dunwoody cat, and also watching Mr. Wardlow unicycle and juggle. There was nothing I didn’t like,” said sophomore Meagan Woo.

Two freshman, Lydia Davis and Noah Grace Lorenzo, disagreed.

“It wasn’t very fun and there was a guy riding a unicycle and that was it,” said Davis.

Lorenzo was a little more lenient on her judgement, but still not a big fan.

“It was alright. I mean my favorite part was the dancers because they were really getting it,” said Lorenzo. “It was not as fun [as the ones at the middle school].”