From Print Edition: Cowhide Assembly

By: Sameh Esmaeili and Lily Stetson

This Friday, before the Cowhide game, ASB put on the Cowhide rally to hype up the school for the upcoming game. It took a lot of preparing done by ASB, Ranger Video, Cheer, and Dance planning to get it just right so the mood was set for one of the most important sporting events of the year.

Savannah Travis, ‘20, says she is so relieved that the rally went smoothly, and how everyone seemed hyped about it. Travis says, “My biggest want was to make the rally as hyped as possible to create a spirited atmosphere and to make everyone excited to be a Ranger.” In order for those wants to happen, Travis did three big things: “wooden cow to make cowhide distinct from the other rallies which Mr. Coon helped out with, intro video to start the rally off with a bang, and the balloon wall to transform the gym with Redwood spirit.”

Kelsey Myers, ‘21, thought that the rally went really well. “I thought it was really funny and I loved how hyped everyone was,” she says. She doesn’t think that any other rally could compare to the Cowhide rallies. She says that this rally “really helped gain a lot of school spirit back.” There was definitely more school spirit at the football game when Principal Shin announced that we would have music back for Cowhide, exciting everyone.

Sophie Wasem, ‘20, thinks that the decorations were great and there was so much school spirit. “This was probably one of the best rallies I’ve ever been to. It flowed great and in my opinion everything went perfectly and there was a lot of energy and pep,” she stated when asked how she thought the rally went. She enjoyed hearing about all the achievements the football team has had this year. “I haven’t been to a rally this good in a while so it was great to see Redwood back at it.”

The varsity cheer girls got a chance to walk down all the football players. Lindsey Spano, ‘19, is one of the captains for the cheer squad, “Escorting the boys was a great experience and one of the best parts of the rally.” The cheer squad and dance had a duo performance. Spano stated, “We prepared for the rally by going to 7am practices to 7pm and communicating as a squad.” It was very stressful getting their dance together because they didn’t have much time but overall it turned out really good and impressed many people by working together with Dance Force.

Sanaya Gonzalez, ‘21,a cheer member practiced really hard. She said, “Had Saturday and morning practices to prepare for the rally and halftime.” It got a little stressful towards the end because they were not fully ready. But the cheer coach made them work even harder. Gonzales states, “ But it was all worth it I got a lot of complements as to how the performance looked.”

After the duo performance, XL Hip Hop did a large overall dance that got everyone in the gym hyped up and cheering on the dancers.

Then once cheer walked down all the football boys the captains had a speech. Towards the beginning of the assembly, the captains did a special spotlight dance in front of the school as a fun way to get into spirit. Alex Rivera, ‘19, one of the football captains was really hyped up for this Cowhide. He stated, “We have these dogs behind us and we’re ready to fight and bring this hide back.” John Vega, ‘19, was thanking all of his teammates and his family. He stated, “Proud of all my teammates and how hard they’ve worked, each of these boys behind me are my brothers and my family.”

Along with all the activities and performances, there were many different videos and commercials spread out throughout the rally. Some of these included a Dr. Pepper commercial, a Ranger Cowhide rap, a Snickers commercial involving the Ball generations, and an Old Spice commercial that got everyone excited.

Kaylee Gallardo, ’19, one of the many students in Ranger Video that worked on these shared some insight on the prep and time taken into these short clips, “We all got into groups and planned out different commercials we wanted to do then we all teamed up to make the best video we could. For commercials, the hardest part was trying to get together and getting perfect shots…we wanted them as best as possible.”

All of the videos seemed to turn out a success but Gallardo’s favorites to film were “the Spotify [rap] commercial and the old spice one. I loved how to whole crowd sang along with the one and the old spice one was fun to be a part of.” Along with these short videos, there was an overall intro for the Great Cowhide which incorporated the Marvel intro by Weston Watson, ’19. Gallardo said on behalf of that video in particular, “The hype and intensity of it was so unbelievable and made everyone excited to be a part of Redwood.

Rallies play an important part in getting everyone into the spirit. They help hype up the students for a week of fun and excitement. Thank you to all students involved in setting up or just being a part of the Redwood spirit!