The third rally of the 2018-2019 Oak Park High School school year was held March 8. The rally was filled with spirit, games, energy and performances. Leading up to the rally was spirit week which included dress-up days such as camouflage day, twin day, beach day, USA day and rally day.

This was the first rally of the year in which the seniors wore all black, while the rest of the school wore their designated class color.

“I loved the games and the energy of the rally,” senior Carolyn Quant said. “It was a lot of fun and I liked the blackout because it’s easy for people to go all out and show school spirit.”

According to many students, the week leading up to the rally was exciting, however, outfits for spirit week were limited due to the weather.

“For beach day I wanted to wear Birkenstocks to go all out, but I couldn’t because of the rain,” junior Grace Hassanieh said.

The rally consisted of performances by the band, cheer, dance, the boys’ varsity lacrosse team and choir. There was also a dodgeball game, a lip sync battle, a teacher-student ball hopping competition and a video made from clips of the previous rally.

“The games were really fun and everyone was invested in what was going on,” senior and dance team captain Grace Fraser said. “I think dance team did [well]. I feel that the scoring system for who won the rally was fair even though the seniors didn’t win, but the energy was really great too.”

Sophomore Sam Peters said this was one of the best rallies of the year.

“All of the rallies are always super dope and everyone is always having fun,” Peters said.

Sophomores Vianne Will, Isa Rojas, Sofia Rawlins and Solana Moye represented their grade in the lip sync battle.

“This rally was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had with a rally. It was so much fun to actually contribute to everyone’s entertainment because I love to make people smile and laugh,” Moye said. “Our lip sync battle we rehearsed for two and a half weeks, and [we] put a lot of time into it. Our performance went so much better than expected because we did not practice the flips or the split jump.”

This rally was the first this year in which the freshmen won a game.

“My grade and I were really excited that we won a game,” freshman Kayla Sadraie said. “Even though everyone chants ‘go home freshman’ the rallies are still fun.”

Many students yelled “unfair” and “rigged” when the sophomores won the dodgeball competition.

“I feel like people say it was rigged because they were mad the sophomores won and if it was rigged it would have been for the seniors,” sophomore and dodgeball participant Ryan Kokenis said. “We had a fair rally and gameplay and I did have fun at the rally and it was so cool that we won.”

Juniors still hold the lead this year for winning the most spirit points and games at rallies.

“I felt the rally really captured the school’s spirit and brought joy to all in a fun interactive way,” junior Derek Yerich said.

Some say that seniors Ben Fuller, Aiden Glikmann, Dylan Rodgers and Ethan Martin were the highlight of the entire rally when they lip-synced “Sucker” by Jonas Brothers.

“Even though we definitely got robbed by the judges, I had a blast getting to perform for the whole school one last time and I’m definitely gonna miss our lip sync performances every year,” Fuller said.