The 2017 Homecoming Spirit Week was definitely one of the most exciting spirit weeks we have had at Oakton in the past few years. With the fun “Glo-co” theme, both students and faculty were able to enjoy great festivities throughout the week leading up to Homecoming.

What is the purpose of a pep rally? Oakton holds them usually always before annual Homecoming and Prom events to encourage school spirit, support team members, and bring the Oakton community together. As always, the pep rally was at the end of the day, during an extended third period block. There were two pep rallies — first floor was first pep rally, and second floor was the second. This year, Leadership students did an exceptional job planning the pep rally to bring excitement before the Homecoming game and weekend.

The extremely talented photographer and videographer Danny Engels, senior at Oakton, collaborated with other Oakton senior Luis Acosta to create a Hype Video for our Homecoming spirit week. Unfortunately, there were technical difficulties when Leadership attempted to show the Hype Video during the pep rallies, so students were unable to view the video in its entirety. Click on the link above to watch the fun and well-directed three minute clip!

At the start of the pep rally, the Varsity Football Team ran through the Homecoming 2017 banner made by Leadership students. The pep rally this year consisted of new performances from the Oakton Cheer Team and the Dance Team, as well as the marching band and drum line to make some noise. Furthermore, Leadership organized a “Pie Your Teacher in the Face” contest, where Mr. Krizel, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Kaplan, Mr. Lee, Mrs. Tatian, Mr. McCulla, and Mrs. Hulse were nominated by students to get “pied”. There were tickets available for sale during lunches throughout Homecoming week, and students were able to purchase them to participate in a raffle to pie their selected teacher. It was definitely a victory, seeing as most teachers were successfully pied directly in the face and the participants had a great laugh.

Class officers for the 2017-2018 school year were also announced during the pep rally. Congratulations to the following students:

Senior Class: Parker Waters (President), Orah Smith (Vice President), Jack Hillen and Gabriel Jarrard (Executive Officers)

Junior Class: Arnaud Dahourou (President), Tyler Kimble (Vice President), Mason Bram and Russell Thompson (Executive Officers)

Sophomore Class: Chris Hillen (President), Charitha Vennapusa (Vice President), Grace Khandelwal and Claire Wang (Executive Officers)

Freshmen Class: Allison Silas (President), Frank Smoot-Canty (Vice President), Grace Hibbs and Marcus Tay (Executive Officers)

The final event that took place at the 2017 pep rally was the “Sibling Relay”. Four pairs of siblings battled each other to the finish line, spinning around, racing in wheelbarrow, carrying each other, skipping and holding hands, leap frog, and lastly, popping a balloon together. The winning sibling pair in the first pep rally was Matthew (12) and Patrick (9) McCabe, and Braeden (12) and Garrett (10) Johnson in the second pep rally. They raced against each other, and the McCabe brothers finished as the ultimate sibling champions at Oakton.