Michael Braun (11) hoped for rain. 

As ASB Secretary, Braun was in charge of organizing the Homecoming Rally. Having seen only a few rallies his freshman year before the pandemic, this was the first one Braun was leading. 

“It was a little overwhelming the first few days trying to think about everything I needed to do,” he said. “The last week [of planning] was pretty frantic, but I think it was just the stress of wanting to put on a good event.”

But even after rehearsing the rally the Thursday night before, Braun said he only felt more stressed. 

When school administrators informed him that the rain would likely prevent the rally from happening, Braun said he felt a weight lifted from his shoulders.

“It was kind of a relief,” he said. “I felt better once I knew that we could have a few more weeks to plan it and make it better.”

That morning, ASB opted to do a “flash mob” at lunch, incorporating performances from Dance Troupe and the drumline. They postponed the actual rally to today.

“During first period, we just thought about the ways we could still do something,” Braun said. “We reached out to everyone who was scheduled to perform, and they all wanted to participate (in the flash mob).”

Braun said that the extra time to do more run-throughs of the rally revealed smaller pieces of the rally that could be improved.

“The scripts had to be changed,” he said. “The transitions from an emcee speaking to a game or a group got better solidified.” 

One of the biggest things that needed to be adjusted, Braun said, was the sound.

“Originally, for Homecoming, we had [sound systems from] SOS Entertainment,” he said. “But because we postponed the rally, we no longer have that. So we needed to change the playlist and work on the audio for the rally.”

ASB President Kody Mongold said that the extra time helped all of ASB come into the first rally of the year better prepared. 

“Usually, from my experience in freshman and sophomore year rallies, things have always come up that we’re not necessarily anticipating,” he said. “So the extra run-throughs really helped us cover those bases. And while everyone was disappointed that we didn’t get to have it on the original day, I think things will go a lot smoother.”

Mongold oversaw the rally at the start of term two before the pandemic sent students home. He said that experience helped him with more generally managing today’s rally.

“It’s kind of fun that one of the last things that I remember doing in the regular school life was a rally,” he said. “Getting to come back to something that kind of resembles that is pretty cool.”

Mongold said that this rally will mostly wrap up all the Homecoming festivities.

“Everything quarter one is going to be wrapped up,” he said. “We don’t have to worry about any more football games, meaning there’s no more concessions that we have to focus on. Now it’s on to quarter two and focusing on all of that.”

Braun said he feels a lot better than he did three weeks ago.

“We’ve had a lot more time to test everything out,” he said. “I just have a lot more peace of mind about the rally.”

Braun said he hopes that students will still be excited about the first rally since returning to campus. 

“I’m hoping that we get a lot of hype,” he said. “I want students to come away from [the rally] feeling like it was meaningful and that they had fun.”