Arcadia High School (AHS) held the Winter Pep Assembly in the North Gym on Jan. 24. Students of all grades came together to experience performances from Orchesis and Pep Squad, and introductions of winter academic and sports teams. The assembly was performed twice in order for all students to be able to watch the performance.
The assemblies began with ASB members introducing themselves and opening the show by recognizing the Winter academic teams: Physics Team, Vex Robotics, Engineering Design & Development, USA Biology Olympiad, Ocean Science Bowl, History Bowl, Math Team, Gov Team, Quiz Bowl, Speech and Debate, Academic Decathlon, Destination Imagination, Applied Engineering, Science Bowl, and Science Olympiad.
Freshman Darren Lei, a member of the History Bowl said, “The assembly was an excellent way for the school to show off and inform the students of our wonderful athletic and academic programs. As a member of History Bowl, I was proud to go out there and represent our team to the school as well as all the achievements of myself and my peers.”
ASB athletics commissioner Wilson Lau then introduced the Winter season varsity athletic teams: Girls Basketball, Boys Basketball, Girls Soccer, Boys Soccer, and the Girls Water Polo team ran out onto center stage, performing their own unique cheer. Each team’s accomplishments for the AHS community were acknowledged and celebrated.
“Having this opportunity really brings us together as a whole and helps to celebrate our school’s spirit,” said ASB Vice President freshman Thomas Le. “I think our community gets stronger whenever we hold these assemblies, and it’s really nice to just show appreciation to the teams who work so hard to earn awards and medals for Arcadia’s collection.”
Following the introduction of these teams, ASB held a “Shake It Off” game among the ASB council. Representatives were selected for each grade, one per grade, and the objective was to shake all the ping pong balls out of the tissue box tied to their waist: “shake it off” your body. Le was the winner for the second assembly, while senior Arion Togelang won in the first assembly.
“It was really fun to participate in the activity. I liked just being myself and confident—as long as you set your mind to it, embarrassment goes out of the picture, and anything becomes possible!” said Le.
The students experienced a performance delivered by Varsity Pep Squad, as well as Orchesis with their striking movements and black and red outfits to represent the school’s spirit color—red. One of the highlights of the assembly was surely the Brain rot competition between the teachers at AHS . The game’s objective was to see which teacher could recognize the most Gen-Z slang. In the end, it was a tie, and all the teachers won.
“The brain rot was crazy, and I definitely wasn’t expecting something like this to ever happen at a school event,” said freshman Ava Frost. “I was appalled when they began dropping terms like ‘rizz’ or ‘sigma.’ I never expected my dance teacher (Mrs. Morreale) to talk about being ‘skibidi’.”
After another performance from Pep Squad, the assembly was beginning to wrap up. But not before addressing the recent Los Angeles fires which have greatly affected many residents in Southern California, including fellow staff and students in Arcadia. ASB introduced “Hoops for Hope,” a game of basketball where the grade level with the most hoop shots would donate to support those affected by the fires.
Principal Angie Dillman represented the freshmen, Assistant Principal Jorge Munoz for sophomores, Assistant Principal Karen DuBerke for juniors, and Assistant Principal Peter Vo for seniors. The seniors won the game in the first assembly, with Mr. Vo scoring nine points in the final round. In the second assembly, Ms. DuBerke won the game, and $150 was donated in the name of the Class of 2025 and 2026 to support the communities affected by the fires.
“I think a lot of the teams on campus are super prestigious and we’ve all had or are going to have a great competition season, so being featured at the assembly is an honor and I’m glad that our efforts are recognized!” said sophomore Angie Wong. “For the sports teams, only varsity ever gets to run out but they’ve got super cool entrances, so it motivates me to improve in my own sport and hopefully make it to varsity someday!”
