With an emphasis on unity and simplicity, the “Warriors Take W’s” themed spirit week from Sept. 4 to Sept. 7 aimed to revive the Warrior school spirit to kick off the new school year. In contrast to many other pep rallies and spirit weeks, “Warriors Take W’s” remained especially centered on the idea that every Woodbridge High student could be a part of the school spirit through an interactive pep rally and a simpler spirit week where everyone has the resources

to dress up.

Each day of the spirit week started with the letter ‘W’ and centered around a theme, including “Wake-Up Tuesday,” “We’re Related Wednesday,” “White Out Thursday” and “Warrior Friday”.

“We’re trying to keep this first week simple so that a lot of people can dress up for it. The main difference is that it’s not all Warrior themed this week, [the events] start with a ‘W’, it’s more unique and allows us to add more simple themes that people can actually dress up for,” senior and spirit commissioner Kameron Shahabi said.  

The spirit week took about a week of planning and advertising. After receiving student input, Associated Student Body (ASB) members finalized the ideas for the spirit week.  

“I asked people around school and asked people in ASB who said to try and keep it simple, so I went around looking, especially for simple ideas… [students] can always come talk to me to get some input,” Shahabi said.

The pep rally took place on the last day of the spirit week as the culmination of all the spirit built up over the course of the week. To build up the tension of the pep rally host reveal, the hosts, seniors Ryu Suzuki and Megan You, wore masks in the beginning of the show and also revealed themselves to be the new Warrior TV anchors.

“We decided to have the two Warrior TV anchors to be the host because they’re familiar faces we’re going to be seeing a lot, so I figured having two people who we want people to know for the rest of the school year,” pep rally commissioner and junior Sam Blake said.

Like many of the pep rallies in the past, this pep rally also showcased the traditional ASB member introduction and fall sport captain reveal, along with performances by dance, cheer and rally band. However, what made this specific pep rally unique was its theme.

“I figured it was a good idea to do a [Woodbridge-themed] rally because all of the other pep rallies had different themes and I felt like we needed to have a spirited rally, espec

ially because it’s the beginning of football season and homecoming is soon. It’s just the beginning of the year so we need to start the year off with tons of spirit,” Blake said.

One other aspect that made the pep rally different from the rest was the incorporation of an interactive game. Though pep rallies in the past had experimented with games, only the seniors were present for it, thus making it a new experience for most of the school. The pep rally game, “life-size hungry hippos”, called in three volunteers from each grade to congregate to the center of the auditorium to compete against the other grades.  One person lied flat on the skateboard while another volunteer held his/her legs. The person lying on the skateboard gathered as many balloons inside the basket to win.

“This pep rally really stood out to me because the students in the crowd had the chance to participate in t

he games, instead of only being spectators,” junior Michael Carrier said.

With this spirited pep rally, Warriors gained some school spirit to boost them through the year and had a quick refresher on what makes a Warrior a Warrior.