Pep Rallies Stir Up S-P-I-R-I-T : Good Cheer Greets a New Football Season

The football team huddled, totally cool, outwardly confident, behind the bouncing cheerleaders at Saddleback High School’s football kickoff rally Friday.

“We’re the best! That’s for sure!” the cheerleaders screamed as the lunchtime crowd milled around in the quad. The ballplayers could only agree.

Then quarterback and football captain Juan Acuna dropped the ball. Student pep commissioner Elvia Rodriguez thrust a microphone his way, and a speechless Acuna, surprised by a move that was not covered in the playbook, bobbled for a moment before handing it back.

“I’m not very good talking in front of people,” Acuna explained a few minutes later, “but I’m not so shy on the field.”

The Saddleback psyche-up rally, attended by more than 500 students, was one of dozens at high schools around the county to mark the first games of the grid season Friday night and tonight. The rallies, timed to give the players a mental lift and the students an injection of school spirit, are a ritual celebration of high hopes and finely honed athletic moves. Reality has not yet bumped aside the dream; no victory, no title seems beyond reach.

It is a new season.

“The players have spent weeks in practice, beating up on each other and being disciplined by coaches,” said Jerry Witte, head Saddleback Roadrunners football coach since 1973.

‘Feel Special’

“Pep rallies give them a chance to feel special, to have people paying attention to them and not yelling at them. They can smile and laugh and enjoy it. This is what high school athletics is all about.”

There is a down side to the high excitement, however. “A lot of teachers don’t like the assemblies because it takes so long to get the kids settled down afterward,” Witte said. “But this is a little celebration, and they all deserve it.”

The Roadrunners will face the Seahawks of Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach at the Santa Ana Stadium tonight. They are hoping this year’s record will be an improvement over the 4-7-1 win-loss-tie tally for last year. After all, this is a team that took the California Interscholastic Federation Central Conference Championship in 1985, so a turnaround seems possible, students said.

“Most schools don’t go to their football games, but we do,” said Sal Harris, 17, a senior at Saddleback. Harris took a noisy sip from his milk carton, wiped his mouth with his wrist, then explained that last year’s football setbacks are history. “This year we’ve got a great team,” he said. “All we need is some big freshman to carry on the Saddleback tradition.”

Athletics give students something positive to support, said Margaret Cruz, 15, a sophomore. “The football team is good because it keeps people out of trouble,” she said. “There’s a lot of gangs here, and it gives people something to do instead of doing shootings.”

The players and cheerleaders--appearing proud and unified in their green-and-gold uniforms--stood out Friday. On cue, they made their way to the cement quad after finishing their lunches, taking their posts beside the band. The football players, who were gathered into a knot, became a magnet for girls, aspiring players and finally stragglers who came to investigate the commotion.

Rodriguez, 17, a natural for the all-important post of pep commissioner, took the microphone: “Come on, show your school spirit!” she shouted, seeking volunteers from each class for a relay game. Once students were assembled into four teams, she announced the object of the game: to hug a designated teammate with enough force to burst the balloon stuffed under each competitor’s shirt. The first team to burst all its balloons would win.

The sophomores, giggling and embarrassed, balked.

But the senior team, composed of four football players, including Acuna, had a clear advantage. This move was in the playbooks.

Chests forward and chins up, they rushed as they would tackling dummies, popping their balloons and slamming together. In less than a minute it was over. The sophomores were still ricocheting off one another.

“It’s so great,” bubbled Ashley Miller, a senior who was wearing a pep squad T-shirt. “Football season is the best time of year.”