Cheers, Chants, and Champions: L'ville Pep Rally

On this past Friday, November 8, Lawrenceville students gathered at the Keuffel Stadium for the annual pep rally. The event featured several traditional activities, such as the pie-eating contest, the relay race, and a cheerleading performance from some of Lawrenceville’s dancers. Three weeks prior, on October 18, Lawrenceville’s Student Council held a flag football competition between the Crescent Houses, which led to the final match between the Stanley House and the McClellan House. With Boys’ Varsity Football Coach Napoleon Sykes’ inspiring speech to end off the pep rally, morale was at an all-time high, leading into Hill Day the following morning.

In planning the pep rally, the Student Council’s Athletic Representative Sofia Swindell ’25 explained that she mainly took inspiration from the “most enjoyable” parts of previous  years’ pep rallies, as well as input from student leaders of The Big Red Dog Pound, Lawrenceville’s hype group. “The Dog Pound’s [student leaders] helped with several ideas, but my focus was on incorporating the best parts of last year’s [pep rally] and figuring out which of those would get the crowd most involved,” Swindell recalled.

To that end, Swindell recreated last year’s scavenger-hunt-relay activity, taking random volunteers from the audience who were to bring back certain items from those among the crowd. Similarly, pie-eating contest participants were volunteers from each House. “The participants weren’t just from a specific group of people, such as sports captains or House presidents,” she elaborated, “They were just normal people from the student body.” 

Reflecting on the event itself, Swindell claimed the pep rally to be “very successful.” Regarding the Student Council’s mantra of “United and Proud,” Swindell said “I foresaw that being applied in athletics [to bring] lots of school spirit.” “The way we showed that spirit at the pep rally [made] me see that we already do have a spirited student body and can definitely accomplish that mission going forward,” she concluded.

 Boys’ Varsity Football Captain Benjamin Lahlou ’25 echoed Swindell’s positive sentiments. “[The events] were very energetic, and I could really feel the community coming together to cheer for [the participants], especially in the girls’ flag football game,” Lahlou recalled, “I definitely had a great time…and I know this pep rally will be very memorable!”

Similarly, Sathvik Samant ’26, a spectator, felt that the flag football match was “undeniably the highlight” of the event. “The energy level [during the match] was particularly high, and the School’s community formed a really passionate crowd as they cheered for [either] Stanley or McClellan,” Samant commented, “Plus, finally being in the Keuffel Stadium allowed us to fit the entire School, so I think it was definitely a better experience overall, with everyone being able to watch attentively.”

For Girls’ Varsity Soccer Captain Ellie Turchetta ’25, the pep rally was a new experience, as she became an active participant this year rather than just a fervent audience member. “In years past, I remember cheering on our captains as they did their relay, but I wasn’t really involved, so I definitely enjoyed a very different experience this year, especially watching my teammates in red cheer me on in the stands,” Turchetta said. In recent years, the Girls’ Varsity Soccer team has continued their tradition of painting all members’ faces with red paint to display their Lawrenceville pride, by which Turchetta stands proud.

Likewise, Elijah Miller ’25 thought the experience was “super electric.” While he expressed his initial disappointment when he saw “how many people were sitting down and not making the effort to be more hyped,” he recalled the change in energy he felt when the flag football final began. In particular, Miller emphasized that he enjoyed Boys’ Varsity Football Coach and Assistant Director of Admission Napoleon Sykes, better known as Coach Poe’s, speech at the very end.” “It felt like the entire School was both physically and spiritually on the same team at that moment,” he said, “I think that’s really the type of energy I remember and what the Student Council was aiming for in this event.”