Redwood’s first ever outdoors rally: Homecoming

The Tuesday, September 7 rally was a great way to kick off Redwood’s Disney-themed Homecoming week. Rally tradition was asserted, as this was the first rally since the Coronavirus pandemic, along with the first ever outside rally at Redwood High School.

Homecoming week has been filled with spirit days, the rally, Homecoming King and Queen nominations, lunch games, and the Homecoming football game.

The Homecoming rally consisted of a variety of performances and games led by students. Choir, cheer, Dance Force, and band gave it their all when entertaining the people of Redwood, along with ASB organizing the rally in this introduction to Homecoming week and Redwood spirit.

Laura Spalding, ’25 was beyond excited to perform alongside her bandmates in the rally. Spalding played the synthesizer- an electronic musical instrument during the band performance, fulfilled with pleasure to be back out doing what she enjoys.

With this being her first year attending Redwood, she easily identified the encouraged enthusiasm brought by Redwood’s community, “I think that it’s been so long since people have seen school spirit like this. It is truly encouraging and fun,” Spalding adds.

Christian Huerta, ’25 thought that the rally was “a ton of fun,” especially that he got to experience it with friends alongside him.

“It felt cheerful,” adds Huerta. The display of Redwood spirit made him take into account how much Redwood cares for their students and teams.

Reese Huerta, ’25 described the rally as “exciting.” Her view on Redwood spirit was influenced in a positive light, “I now understand how much work ASB and other students put in to make the spirit more alive and festive.”

As enjoyable as the entire rally was for her, the Dance Force performance stuck out to her, “They are so talented, and it’s crazy how many spins they can do at a time,” adds Huerta.

Jenae Owdom, ’23 was intrigued with the student performances, especially Dance Force as well. She says, “It was super interesting and exciting.”

As COVID regulations are still in place, Owdom added, “The outside rally was a great compromise with COVID.”

She made a point to highlight how the rally made her feel “pride” as a Redwood student. Not only did the rally make her realize how much the staff and students care about each other, though Owdom was proud to see the amount of effort implicated into making something so exciting.

“Incredible” was a word used by Jayce Ford, ’22 to express this unforgettable experience as a part of the Dance Force performance.

“The rally was great outside, and it was really cool because I just started to remember all of the great memories I had from rallies prior to COVID,” stated Ford.

While playing Aladdin in the Dance Force debut, Ford couldn’t believe how amazing the adrenaline rush felt.

The experience was his favorite part of the entire rally, as he expressed, “My favorite part about the rally was getting to perform in front of such an uplifting crowd.” The positivity lead by the student community is what Ford views Redwood spirit is influenced by.

Reghan Cutler, ’22 performed in the marching band as the drum major. “I had been performing at all the rallies since my freshman year in the band, but to be able to be the one leading my fellow bandmates was truly a fun and energetic experience,” Cutler says.

After not having a proper Homecoming experience last year due to COVID, Cutler responded to how she perceived the outside rally went, “I thought the outside rally was super awesome. Especially since we hadn’t had one for a whole school year. The feeling was really exciting and relieving to have somewhat of a normal rally, and a normal HOCO rally experience.”

Throughout the rally, her view on Redwood spirit strengthened. Cutler stated, “It influences my view on Redwood spirit because nothing beats coming together as a school and having fun and performing for classmates. That sense of being together again is what makes the Redwood spirit so powerful.”

In addition to this, she emphasized this point by sharing her favorite part of the rally, which was during the Alma Mater, “It was great to just see everyone back together as a group, because it was just something that couldn’t be replicated over distance learning; that sense of community that Redwood has.”

McKenzie Branch, ’22 is the ASB Rally Commissioner, and thanks to her, along with many other ASB members, this rally was made possible.

When asked how it felt to be able to organize an event like this for Redwood students, Branch answered, “It’s definitely stressful creating and executing plans for the rally, but it’s super rewarding. I really enjoy seeing everything play out, and hearing students talk about all of the good things afterwards. ASB works really hard to connect students through things like spirit weeks and rallies, so it’s definitely awesome to see kids enjoy their week.”

Even with the setting of the rally outdoors, the event was just as enjoyable as indoors may have been. The ability to incorporate the Bowl and to include the entire school felt “great.” Branch adds, “It felt awesome getting everyone all in one place and being able to share in on the Homecoming excitement.”

As she sat in the nominee section throughout the rally, Branch hoped that all the hard work inputted into making this rally would “run smoothly,” and in the end, the outcome turned to be a success.

Redwood spirit continues to appear throughout campus; in the eyes of students enjoying the Redwood experience.

Branch states, “I love seeing students, both upper and underclassmen dress-up and get pretty fired up over the spirit week, and it’s awesome seeing Ranger spirit all across campus.”

In a single word, she used the word “nostalgic” to summarize her feelings in response to the rally.

Tags: arts and entertainment, band, band major, choir, dance force, Donya Hassanshahi, homecoming rally, outdoors rally, rally, rally comissioner, Redwood, redwood cheer, redwood gigantea, redwood journalism, redwood rangers