As students entered the gym, they were excited to see what was planned, chattering among their friends about what to expect. One of the few assemblies throughout the year, SDA’s annual winter assembly was held on Friday.
The hosts, next year’s ASB President junior Zack Kanzler and Vice President junior Devon McGuire, were up to the usual antics of cracking jokes and directing the flow of the assembly. McGuire said, “During the assembly, I was so excited to get the crowd pumped and it was so much fun interacting with everybody. I had a blast!”
Leading in and out of segments, ASB packed the morning with fun games, like a game of Family Feud, as well as informational messages such as a short video reminding students not to text and drive.
The school band kicked off the assembly as students shuffled in and found a seat, playing “Hey Jude” by the Beatles. “My favorite part of the assembly was the very beginning when the band was playing, and Zack and I got the crowd to start singing along. It was so cool seeing our whole school clapping and having fun singing together,” said Maguire.
Once everyone was seated, Kanzler and Maguire opened up the dialogue, joking around, getting the crowd involved, and inviting sophomore Kennedy Tracy on stage to sing the national anthem.
“I was pretty nervous before the assembly because high schoolers are always the hardest to perform in front of,” said Tracy.
Dressed in black, she sang while the auditorium became silent. “While I was singing, I was still pretty nervous thinking about the lyrics,” she said
After her performance, she received lots of applause, screams, and cheers. “It was definitely a great experience,” she said. “I had a lot of respect for people who sing for large crowds before, and I have even more respect now.”
Games at this winter’s assembly included a competition between representatives from the robotics team and the sports teams, in which roles were switched. The student athletes tried to pilot a robot to stack three totes on top of each other, while the robotics team was trying to make as many baskets as they could, all within one minute. There was no clear victor, but the athletes stacked all three totes and the robotics team made four baskets.
After that, the student life video was shown, which featured fun and random scenes such as students answering, “what would you do for a Klondike bar?” and a compilation of students singing various lyrics of the popular song, “Hotline Bling.” It also featured students drawing their teachers, which brought laughter from the crowd.
The second game they played was a slightly butchered version of Family Feud. Due to technical difficulties, the game did not run as smoothly as it could have, but nevertheless, was entertaining. “Our students played it off fine, though. The contestants were very cooperative, and the crowd just laughed it off. In the end. It was all great,” said Maguire.
As the assembly concluded, and students filed out of the assembly, the band played another popular song, “Don’t Stop Believing.”