Students attended the first pep rally of the semester on Friday, Jan. 31. With excitement in the air, a mixture of performances from teachers, dancers, cheerleaders, and student musicians hyped up the audience for a morning of great entertainment. 

With brass instruments rotating and drums beating, Westwood Band played the school’s music with spirit. Feeling the beat, the cheerleaders grapevined across the floor flashing their bright smiles with their pom-poms held high.  

“I think we did great,” Abigail Wignall ‘22 said. “It was really fun performing in front of the students, and everyone was singing Sweet Caroline.”     

The cheerleaders chanted and tumbled across the floor as the students cheered them on. With only a week of learning their routine, they stood proud. 

Afterwards, a hip-hop dance routine was performed by Warrior Pride. The large group of dancers moved together with fun energy as their black outfits created an ensemble effect. They jumped across the floor with attitude as the audience ate up the ecstatic energy.

“I really enjoyed how they danced to songs that people know,” Sherlyn Cardoso ‘22 said. “I really liked all of the hip hop dance moves that they did.”

In the next event, Coach Amber Hall, Mr. Robert Cochran, and Principal Dr. Mario Acosta competed in the friendly annual lip sync battle. First to take the spotlight, Mr. Cochran passionately worded the lyrics to the song “Pokemon Theme”. Followed was a Billie Eilish impersonation by Coach Hal. Driving in a small car much like the one from the music video, he bounced around with blue hair to the song “Bad Guy”. Finally, swinging on a wrecking ball, Doctor Acosta lip-synced to the heartfelt song, “Wrecking Ball”. He danced with such humor and emotion that it made it impossible for students to take their eyes off. 

“Honestly when I heard K-Pop wasn’t performing I was disappointed,” Isabelle Corell ‘22 said. “I wasn’t expecting the lip-sync battles to be that good, but when I saw Coach Hall and Dr. Actosa come out and perform, I laughed a lot and really enjoyed it.” 

Following the lip sync battle, The SunDancers took the floor in a newly choreographed hip-hop Spring routine. Wearing red, they danced across the gym with hair flying all around. Their eye-catching outfits and enthusiasm left the audience smiling at their display. 

  “It was really fun to get to show off one of our spring showcases to the rest of the school,” SunDancer Greta Mock ‘22 said. “I thought the performance went pretty well, and all of us did a great job.”