It?s Friday afternoon, students are in their fourth period classes staring at the clock waiting for 1:30. The intercom interrupts class asking to release all students to the gym for the pep rally.

Pep Rallies are held to lift school spirit. Football at Lakeland High School started in 1907 and not long after, LHS began their first pep rally to show the school?s football team that the students support them.

Mr. Bubba Barnes, an LHS teacher, is the man in charge. He has been announcing Lakeland?s Pep Rallies for twelve to fifteen years. Mrs. Angie Reynolds, Lakeland?s cheerleading coach, sets up the order of how the pep rally runs, and Bubba makes it happen.

Many people are involved in the implementation of the pep rallies. The cheerleaders cheer, the Anchorettes dance, the football players are introduced and presented, and the band plays music. The student body, who are in the stands of the LHS gymnasium, scream, shout, and stomp their feet. Music is played loudly over the speakers to excite the students and get everyone pumped up for the game.

Each pep rally is held in the gym, with the exception of the Kathleen Pep Rally, which is at night on Nurmi Nelson Field. During this tradition LHS gets to burn Kathleen High School?s mascot, the Red Devil.

Pep rallies generally last fifteen to twenty-five minutes. LHS has had them every Friday that they have a home game, until recently, when students started leaving school early instead of attending the pep rallies, so this season, LHS has scheduled only three.

Pep rallies are a chance for students to interact with and support their football team. They get to be loud and crazy to pump up the spirits of the football players and enjoy time with their fellow classmates.