Waking up at 4 a.m. on a Friday morning isn’t exactly my cup of tea. So having to wake up that early on Sept. 13 didn’t make me the happiest person. The only thing going through my head as I made my way to the morning rally in the small gym was, “Why am I up before the sun?”

As I walked into the gym, I was welcomed by a tunnel of screaming and cheering students all decked out in maroon and gold on both sides of me. Their energy was something to admire this early in the morning.

Finding a seat wasn’t too difficult and as we waited for the gym to fill up, there was music pumping and students jumping. Even though I was dead tired, it was hard to not pick up on their energy. I soon began to feel like waking up was worth it.

From my seat in the middle of the bleachers I could see the CW31 news anchor Mark S. Allen making his way around the gym hosting CW31’s High School Kickback segment. It was so exciting to see our high school live on the large projection of “Good Day Sacramento.” Every time their camera passed by, students went crazy, screaming their heads off in hopes to be immortalized on TV.

When 6:30 a.m. rolled around, the games really began. The bleachers were a sea of maroon and gold. Wildcat pride was evident through the never-ending screams and chants. Music was blaring and students were dancing.

Although there was no class winner like at a normal rally, the competitors in the games went by grade level. There was a hot dog eating contest where one person had to stand with their hands behind their back and another person had to stand behind the first, using their hands to feed the person in front. After finishing the two hot dogs and a bottle of Gatorade first, the sophomore class won.

Another game was like a scavenger hunt. One representative from each grade level had to collect an ID card, a drink, a maroon shirt and $5 from people in the audience. The juniors were the first done and got their maroon shirt from a boy in the front row of the bleachers who actually took his shirt off.

The dance team and the cheerleaders both did a great job pumping up the crowd and teaching them the “flash mob” dance to the song, “All I do is Win”. It did take a few runs before the all of the students knew what to do, but after we got it down, everyone got to perform it for the TV cameras.

The rally ended with the football team coming out of the blowup wildcat tunnel and ripping through a “Welcome to the Twilight Zone” banner, to go with the Friday the 13th theme “Your Worst Nightmare.”

by OLIVIA GRAHL