Masuk Free Press

The annual fall pep rally is an event that has been around for years, marking the end of spirit week and the beginning of Homecoming. After only four days, rather than five due to a holiday, Masuk students piled into the gymnasium stands to celebrate an amazing week of school spirit.

Grades 9, 10, and 11 waited in their respective sections while the senior class took a photo in the auxiliary gym. Afterwards, the class of 2026 was introduced and proceeded to their side of the bleachers. To kick things off, senior Jeremiah Purdy and sophomore Caleb Purdy performed the national anthem with electric guitars.

After a performance from the school’s band, the Masuk cheerleaders took the floor. Their seniors were given a shout-out before their performance to hype up the crowd. As the same as years prior, the most spirited awards were given out for each grade. With 12 winners chosen from such a large group, it is hard to narrow down the winners, yet still, those who won deserved it, like senior Olivia Cusa, who showed up to school dressed as Hagrid from “Harry Potter” for celebrity day on Monday. In addition to the 12 student winners, the three teachers who won for best spirit were Mr. Lopuch, Mrs. Danso, and Mrs. Bartosik.

The fall sports captains were promptly honored and called down from the stands to line up. The captains stood by their peers and took photos with the other captains of their respective teams. “Being in the lineup with the other captains felt almost surreal. I remember being a freshmen thinking the seniors and captains were so much older and it’s crazy that it’s now me up there,” says senior soccer captain and Red Army leader Ella McGee.

Then, the competitions began. The upperclassmen and underclassmen had already competed against each other two times prior to the start of the box race, but that was with the rollercoaster game and boxing game. As usual, the upperclassmen outshone the underclassmen with their cheering.

Each class was given a stack of six boxes that had the Masuk symbol, their class’s year, and an exclamation point. The staff was also given the same number of boxes. After this year’s Red Army leaders knocked down the tall stack, the rules were explained. Whichever team stacks the boxes up as they originally were first wins. Once they were told to start, they all rushed to begin stacking. The freshmen class was looking to be the winner for the majority of the time, coming so close, but the senior class beat them before they were able to finish their stack, thus crowning Carter Adranga, Jaylen Africot, Izaiah Caldwell, Kara Leandres, Abigail Yeager, and Emily Poole the winners.

The tug of war between classes is a competition that some say they look forward to the most. Every year, the senior class aims to defeat the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. The first battle was between the seniors and freshmen, almost an unfair matchup in the freshmen’s eyes. Within seconds, the class of 2029 was eliminated.

The juniors and sophomores followed, a closer match than the first. It was a hard fought battle, but after some time, the juniors were victorious. Without being given a break, the junior class had to face the senior class. Much to the class of 2026’s surprise, the juniors defeated the seniors. The players on the junior team were ecstatic.

“I think it was really cool this year to beat the seniors, especially since in past years the seniors have always won,” says junior participant Semia Zylick, “It was really cool to disrupt that and have the whole junior class cheering for us…”

The seniors were feeling the opposite of the younger class, having not kept up the tradition of winning each year.

“Yeah, I was definitely not happy that we lost the tug of war, we were supposed to beat these juniors,” says senior participant Connor Fulchino.

After the juniors were crowned the winners, they then had to face the unified sports team. The juniors fell short, leaving the unified sports team victorious in the end.

After the tug of war competition, the Masuk dance team was called to the floor to dance for the school. They performed a dance to “Womanizer” by Britney Spears. Excited by the dance and for what was to come next, the crowd cheered for their peers.

Directly after, there were 9 groups of a mixture of faculty, cheer, dance, and football players who had a miniature routine to different songs together. They rounded off the performance with a group kickline.

To end the pep rally, the Finish The Lyric minigame was up. Mr. Parkhurst, a reigning champion, was ready to return and battle the students. The other staff participant was Mrs. Isaac. Both managed to not get eliminated, unlike the juniors, who only had Delaney Judge left standing in the end. The seniors, down from their loss in tug of war, committed to not losing this minigame and managed to finish with Aidan Diaz, Olivia Cusa, and Riley Kyle still in. When students were asked how they felt the pep rally went, most answers were similar and around the lines of saying it was simply good. One student had more to say, though.

“I didn’t know exactly what it was, they tried to explain it to me because in Italy we don’t have any of these things. I didn’t have expectations, but it was really fun and made me think a lot about how schools in Italy should learn from [Masuk],”says senior Sonia Stopazzolo, a student who came over from Italy this year. “I really liked it because you could feel the school spirit from every student. I loved the dance choreography, I think they are amazing, but of course, the funniest part was seeing the teachers dance!”

This fresh perspective on the fall pep rally puts into perspective just how spirited Masuk students truly are. With an amazing week of students dressing up and a win from the Masuk football team over New Milford’s team, students look to end the week off with the Homecoming dance Saturday night.