On Wednesday, Aug. 20, Archie Williams Associated Student Body (ASB) hosted the first rally of the 2025-26 school year, ending the Day One festivities. ASB President, senior Alia Torres Cardenas, and ASB Vice President, senior Ellery Ford, emceed the rally, encouraging school-wide spirit. Prior to the rally, ASB also held a school-wide, on-campus Day One lunch event, warranting a 70-minute lunch period.
The Day One-themed lunch event, hosted in conjunction with the Falcon Foundation, offered students free burritos and drinks and had a variety of activities, including T-shirt design stations, a photo booth, and ping-pong. Alia found that the event created the perfect lead-up to the rally.
“The lunch event went great, it was very lively, and there was good food… it can’t get much better than a bunch of games and activities and just Falcon spirit,” Alia said.
Hours later, at 3 p.m., the rally started with a bang as Ellery and Alia entered on go-karts, fitted with full-face helmets, and drove around the Archie Williams Carl “Red” Brown Gymnasium as students cheered. Alia believes the go-karts were an exciting element of a challenging rally to plan.
“The [Day One] rally is always difficult because we can’t have any communication with staff, so it’s always short and just a bit of a bump in the road, but honestly, I feel like it really came together. The go-karts were a bit of a surprise that I feel like people liked,” Alia said.
Along with go-karts, the rally also included a three-legged balloon-popping race from Peer Resource (PR), which senior PR members Evelyn Jones and Tago Desruisseau announced. To foster bonding between grades, the race paired senior Lane Baker with freshman Jack Ketcham, and junior Paige Kelly with sophomore Zayne Wachelka.
Next, the rally featured a dance performance from ASB and an announcement from Dance Troupe captains, seniors Adria Losa and Ori Delaure, and junior Jillian Penrod, that Dance Troupe would make an appearance at the next rally.
(Zoe Levy)
Led by Senior Class President Ben Gross, the last of the rally activities was the “spirit can;” this Archie Williams tradition invited all grades to cheer to embrace spirit. Additionally, students recited the Falcon chant, first the senior class and then all grades. To freshman Nadia Rajparia, the display of school spirit was the most impressive aspect of the rally.
“The rally was really great. Everyone was super loud and into it. I think it’s great that everyone is so spirited,” Nadia said.
Senior Simon Kolek appreciates how united the Archie Williams community felt at the rally.
“I thought [the rally] highlighted the community that we’re trying to build here at Archie Williams. All of the [participating groups] showed their emotion and excitement,” Simon said.
To conclude the rally, Principal Jacob Gran welcomed the freshman class and emphasized his excitement for the coming school year. Students and staff look forward to the next rally Oct. 3, which will be in anticipation of the annual Homecoming Dance.
