VCU hold inaugural pep rally, Lord and Lady crowned

Kris Mason
Staff Writer

On a night without any sporting event taking place in the Siegel Center, the arena is usually silent. That was far from the case Wednesday night when VCU hosted its inaugural pep rally.

The event included a DJ, two bouncy houses and music from the Peppas to entertain students decked in black and gold gear. There was a flurry of activities throughout the pep rally, including many sports teams being introduced with players and coaches, a performance from VCU’s Got Talent winner Alfred Green.

The lord and lady winner, the homecoming king and queen equivalent for the freshman class of 2018 were also announced. The Lord was Isaiah Harvin, who represented the residence hall organization and the lady was Morgan Jacobs, who represented Alpha Xi Delta. This year each class each has their own winners, with seniors having a King and Queen, junior class having Prince and Princess , and the sophomores having a Duke and Duchess.

Shaunice Grier is the spirit and entertainment chair for homecoming week.Her first three years at VCU she volunteered to plan and assist at homecoming events but was not on the homecoming committee until this year.. The senior forensic science major felt that the addition of a pep rally  was a beneficial addition for homecoming week.

“Our goal was to set the standard higher and rebrand homecoming as a whole,” Grier said, “to create traditions and to do new things. So what better event to do than a pep rally and it just so happened that it was on a day we had an away game so we also incorporated a watch party.”

Harvin, a freshman marketing major, was happy to have won and thought the pep rally was productive as a whole.

“It feels good,” he said. “I really like that we can represent our different organizations and all the classes here at VCU. By doing that I feel like we can make it more of a tradition out of homecoming.”

Ann Yu was a candidate for the Lady, and although she did not win she felt it was a positive experience. Yu, a freshman biology major, felt that it was only beneficial for more than just the increased exposure the experience provided for the Emerging Leaders Organization, the group she was representing.

“Regardless, I think its good to have school spirit in general. I don’t really think it benefits our organizations in the fact that it like advertises us,” Yu said. “ I think its great were showing school spirit and contributing to our community and our campus”.

Another big event at the pep rally was the introduction of sports teams. This was to show supports for all sports teams, not just men’s basketball, and to show a unified display school spirit .

One of the teams that were announced was the women’s volleyball team along with field hockey, men’s soccer,  women’s lacrosse among others..

Jessica Young, a freshman right side hitter hoped that the publicity the team received at the pep rally translates into higher attendance rates at the games. Young feels that would translate to the team playing better on the court.

“Just the atmosphere, more people would contribute to more energy and more energy really transfers onto the court,” Young said. “And it really helps move the game along. I think it helps to bring more intensity to the level of play.”

After the announcements people in the crowd were able to go on the court and play on the bouncy houses. The pep rally then transformed into a watch party as the live broadcast of the VCU at University of Richmond men’s basketball game was on the video board at center court.