Written by Carmen Lohora-Young and Kelsey Garduno
Last Friday the middle school hosted their first rally, and many groups performed and raised the spirits of our middle school Mavericks. We interviewed a couple people from each group as well as taking a fair amount of photos so that you can enjoy the atmosphere even if you weren’t present!
The rally was led by web leaders Kaya Ford, Isaac Leivea, and Natalie Hernandez. Kaya was dressed as Spongebob, Issac as Mr. Krabs, and Natalie as Patrick. Throughout the rally, Spongebob and Patrick were trying to prove to Mr. Krabs that friendship and teamwork were important parts to life.
The rally was filled with excitement, school spirit, and a sense of community as students gathered to cheer on their classmates. WEB kicked off the rally with an upbeat dance routine to MILKSHAKE by artist KELLI, inspired by the iconic Katseye GAP advertisement, bringing a fun twist that had the crowd excited.
*WEB leaders performing their dance MILKSHAKE by the artist KELLI.*
The JV dance team followed with a vibrant beach inspired performance, the song being “Surf Crazy” from the “Teen Beach Movie.”
Dance Perspective
To get a student’s perspective, we interviewed a member of the JV dance team Escarlett Soto. Here’s what she had to say:
Hitching Post: What’s your favorite part about being on the dance team?
Escarlett: My favorite part is talking to others. We all make projects together. And lately we’ve just been making up our own dances together and performing them. A lot of people are positive towards each other. They never make you feel scared/uncomfortable.
Hitching Post: How do you get over the nerves before performing?
Escarlett: “I just try to block out everyone’s faces or I just try to be myself and just do what I like to do.
Hitching Post: What do you think is the hardest move in your performance?
Escarlett: The hardest part is probably like where I had to run and slide on the ground into a kick form, and that was really hard to do because I had to get up quickly while being on time with everyone else.
Emi Marcus, another member of the JV dance team shared her perspective. This is what she had to say:
Hitching Post: What inspired your routine for this rally?
Emi: It was Spongebob theme, and we didn’t want to do anything, like, cheesy, like, something from the actual movie, so we did something from a musical.
Hitching Post: What’s the hardest move in your performance?
Emi: The partner moves, remembering the partner moves. I messed that up so many times.
Hitching Post: How do you get over nerves before dancing?
Emi: I just look at my friends, really. I don’t really look at the people, because some people are not nice. So sometimes they’ll just make faces. So I don’t really look at the audience. I usually just look at a wall or my friends.
Hitching Post: What’s your favorite part of being a part of the dance team?
Emi: Just getting to know everyone that’s on it because everyone’s like really cool.
Hitching Post: How do you hope the crowd reacts when you perform?
Emi: Kindly.
Marching Band Performance
The CMHS marching band raised morale with their pep tune performance of Low Rider. At the front of the band was their head drum major Jordan Toledo, beautifully conducting the band, guiding them by keeping the tempo. We interviewed her about her experience at the rally and the setup that occurred to prepare the band for this performance, this is what she had to say.
Hitching Post: How long did your band practice for this rally?
Jordan: Um, like two weeks or so, ’cause our teacher told us, like, two weeks ago that we’re going to be playing for the rally. We didn’t have that much time, but we sounded good.
Hitching Post: What’s your favorite thing about being in a band?
Jordan: Having the memories of my friends. That was, like, the only reason why I didn’t quit the band, but also being the drum major is also fun to do. I like conducting and I just like reading the band and helping everyone out.
Hitching Post: How do you feel when you perform?
Jordan: I used to, in the past, I used to be really scared, because I thought people were going to stare at me only, but now because I’ve been in a band for four years now, it’s more just like, I’m confident to, like, represent my band, represent the school with the band. And yeah, basically just like representing.
Hitching Post: If you could add any song to the set list, what would it be?
Jordan: Maybe, one of our other pep tunes, so maybe like, Pretty Fly for a White Guy. That’s one of my favorite ones.
Choir Performance
CM middle and high school choir lifted Mesa spirit with their performance of “Sisi Ni Moja” by Jacob Narverud. SIsi Ni Moja is mostly sung in Swahili, meaning “we are one.” The song carries the message of universal connection, “We are one world, one people, and we all breathe the same.” We are one being the description for the song on the rally slides.
Mrs. Riopka conducted this piece while Mrs Powers guided the choir playing piano.
Two middle school guitar players, Edwin Rogel and Adeena Pasha performed a duet during the mini games of the rally. They played the song Spongebob scorpions. We interviewed Edwin Rogel about the rally, and about playing the guitar
Hitching Post: What grade are you in?
Edwin: Eighth grade.
Hitching Post: How do you feel?
Edwin: I feel a little bit scared about the performance.
Hitching Post: How long did you practice before this?
Edwin: A couple days, like a week.
Hitching Post: What’s your favorite thing about playing the guitar?
Edwin: Well, when I play the songs, or I practice or I do it with friends.
Edwin did fabulously on his duet with Adeena, and really helped give the rally a Spongebob atmosphere.
Games
One of the highlights of the rally was the mini game, friendship trivia! Two teams were chosen, one of students, and one of teachers. Web leaders would ask a question about an iconic duo within a show or game, and either a student or teacher would have to run across the gym to reach a red buzzer.
The game started with teachers in the lead, but towards the end when the stakes got higher students began to put all their effort in. The final outcome was students as the winner!
The Hitching Post can’t wait for the next rally. Well done!
