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the student news source of shawnee mission south

SM South News

the student news source of shawnee mission south

SM South News

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If you’ve ever been to an assembly at Shawnee Mission South, you’ve experienced school pep at its peak. The assemblies involve members of Pep Club running around, dancing and singing at the top of their lungs like a scene straight out of High School Musical. Some people might find it completely uncomfortable and awkward, but others love the liveliness and excitement of all the skits, sports introductions, and the performances by groups like the Pacesetters and cheerleaders. Whether you like it or not, the students who put the assemblies together work really hard and hope their fellow classmates enjoy them.

“It’s hard to keep everybody interested. We want everybody to appreciate every sport, we don’t want anybody to feel left out. [We] try to make everything as exciting as possible, and when you’re out there it’s hard to face every part of the crowd, so that you’re not just stand towards the Pep Club. That you’re hitting everybody, that’s a challenge,” senior Gabriel Alaniz said.

Pep Club and Student Council put a lot of work into their skits and their intro in between different performances.

“I think the most rewarding part is seeing students get excited, because it’s one thing to see a couple of students excited about an assembly, but it’s a completely different thing to see the whole school really be excited for a common cause,” senior Erica Lang said.

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Behind the scenes during the assemblies usually isn’t as hectic as one might think. Except for the occasional moment when someone freaks out because they’ve misplaced a prop, the MCs and the rest of Pep Club are usually pretty calm and organized.

“[Sometimes] the music doesn’t work, which happened at our first assembly and it is really awkward, or like our relay doesn’t work out, which happened at our last assembly too,” senior Shilpi Ganguly said.

Freshmen may not know it, but the assemblies have changed quite a bit since last year. The assemblies used to consist of corny jokes and awkward puns. Some students miss the timeless old jokes, but others think what’s being done is an improvement. The cringe- worthy puns have now been replaced by the pep MC’s getting the whole audience involved in relay races and flash mobs.

“People before us would just do little jokes and puns and not everyone really liked that. So we like to kind of go above and beyond and act out things instead of [telling] jokes and do more interactive things and incorporate music and conversation instead of [just] jokes,” senior Haley White said.

Another big improvement has been the idea of seating students according to grade. That has greatly helped the MC’s get through to the audience.

“I think one of the things that we have really been focusing on this year is really making sure that every side of the gym is able to see our faces and be able to really see what’s happening down here on the floor. But with MCing and with us presenting different things we really do try to face all parts of the crowd,” Lang said.

One of the problems that the assemblies now face is time management, as was seen in the sweetheart assembly. Pep Club and STUCO were scurrying about trying to figure out how they had run out of time for the skits toward the end.

“I think one of the problems with the MC’s is we have too much fun with it, so all of our skits last longer than they probably should, just so we can get the point across,” White said.

Luckily, they came up with a clever solution: showing the cut portion in seminar. Teachers were supposed to show the skits via YouTube during seminar. The skits were the STUCO reps from each grade performing a song in a creative way.

Another problem the MC’s face is making sure the assemblies aren’t repetitive, which can be rather difficult. Thinking of new and fresh ideas that are not only funny for the audience but also aren’t childish can be big challenge.

“That’s always a challenging part, but I think because we have the four of us MC’s [Brandon, Gabe, Haley and Erica], we are really able to work together and we’re able to bring some different things to the assembly and just have fun with it,” Lang said.

Pep Club puts a lot of work in the assemblies and the main goal is to make sure the student body has a fun and happy experience …and make sure that they’re having a better time at an assembly than they would in seminar.

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