As school buses entered the school’s driveway, 8th graders were presented with the majestic appearance of the Rancho Cucamonga High School campus. As the students got off the buses and were brought to the gym, the incoming freshmen were blasted with music, hype, and the full power of the Cougar spirit.

RCHS ASB, Student Achievement, and Link Crew successfully held their 8th-grade rally on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, to encourage incoming freshmen to come to join the Cougars, while also showing the different clubs and sports on campus. Different middle schools, such as Etiwanda Intermediate School, Day Creek Intermediate School, Ruth Musser Middle School, and Cucamonga Middle School, came to participate in the rally.

The event took place in the well-decorated gym, which ASB, SA, and Link Crew prepared. Because of basketball season taking place in January, the three coordinators began preparations about a month ago.

“We started looking at it about a month ago, [since] basketball season makes it difficult for all of us,” Mr. Aaron Bishop, the main speaker and the self-proclaimed official MC of the 8th-grade rally, said. “[The teams] got together about two weeks ago and we kind of ironed out the different parts [of the rally].”

The main purpose behind the rally is to introduce the incoming freshmen to the hype and spirit of RCHS and to also ease their nerves about any misconceptions they have towards high school.

“We want to give them a taste of RCHS, what they can look forward to,” Bishop said. “So many kids have animosity or are a little scared of high school. [The rally] is just supposed to be able to break some of the ice to get them ready for high school.”

The many different groups who helped prepare for the rally in their own different ways provided the incoming freshmen with a fun and warm welcome to the school. Like any other major event, the rally started off with the national anthem performed by the RCHS choir.

RCHS choir often plays the anthem in big events throughout the year, and the rally was no exception. They often rehearse the anthem live for “big events, like basketball or rally,” RCHS choir teacher Ms. Kelley Squires said.

“We first rehearsed for the [national anthem] in the beginning of the year,” junior Clare Donaldson said. “We rehearsed it continuously [until] we got it right.”

After the anthem, Bishop showed the incoming freshmen a video produced by the Bulletin. The video depicted all of RCHS’s greatest moments and why students should come to the school.

“ASB asked me about a month ago to make a little recap video that basically showed off [RCHS],” senior Justin De Anda, the student who prepared for the video, said. “[The purpose behind the video was to] make RCHS look like a fun place to be.

Though the video segment went very well, many don’t actually know the time and patience that went behind the preparations. 

“All those videos [in the segment] were all pre-recorded,” De Anda said. “I even grabbed some cuts I had done in older videos to save time. Nothing was really edited, it was all just [cut].”

Even during the preparations, which took almost two weeks, De Anda explained how the file where he kept his video became corrupted, resulting in him having to stay up all night the day before the rally to make the video all over again.

“A lot of people don’t actually see that stuff, but it’s [my] job to make it work no matter what,” De Anda said.

After showing the video, Bishop moved on to introduce the RCHS cheer team. After they did their performance, Bishop introduced the different sports and clubs, such as track, cross country, band, dance, and so much more.

Throughout the rally, the main hardship that many of the students face during the rally “is when the 8th graders come in, they’re not in their comfort zone,” Bishop said. “It’s tough to get them to do what we want. However, if you give us the first five minutes, we’ll be able to [ease] them down.”

As the event came to a close, many of the 8th graders who attended felt very excited to join RCHS. Many explained how they were at first nervous before attending the rally, but with the help from Bishop’s hype and enthusiasm, many were excited to come join the Cougars.

“I was a little bit nervous, not knowing what to expect [before attending the rally],” Hunter, an 8th grader from EIS, said. “More than likely, though, I’ll be going to RCHS.”

Though the preparations for the rally experienced some highs and lows, many can agree that, as Bishop said, the 8th-grade rally this year was “double thumbs up, hundred-hundred, the Rancho way.”