Fueled by the excitement of returning to a normal school year, PHS students are roaring with school spirit. With the start of the fall sport season and the recent “pack the cage” mentality that many have adopted, sporting events have offered students an opportunity to show support for their peers and display school pride. Of course, these events would not be complete without the captivating musical acts that entertain the crowd, so there is no shortage of work for PHS musicians to do in preparation.

This September, two major school spirit events took place, both of which occurred on Friday, September 23: the annual Pep Rally and the Homecoming game.

The Pep Rally occurs every year in September and gives the student body a chance to recognize and uplift our sports teams. Each team is individually called out, after which they are met with a round of applause from their peers. This event is purposefully held before Homecoming to amp up school spirit before the big game, and the inclusion of musical entertainment is integral to keeping the crowd engaged and excited. This year, the Pep Rally took place after school on the turf, where two of PHS’s a cappella groups—The Cat’s Meow and Around 8—performed. As school has just started, there was little time to prepare for the gig, but the young musicians were confident that they would pull through with a good performance despite the time crunch.

“The easiest part of practice is that we have so many great singers, that learning music has become a piece of cake. We can put together a new song every rehearsal,” said Matty Baglio ’23, the music director for Around 8.

Around 8 performed the national anthem for the Pep Rally, while The Cat’s Meow performed the PHS alma mater.

“We’re excited to be performing the alma mater this year. It’s nice to be part of such a fun tradition that’s so important to PHS culture,” said Rowan Gilmore ’23, a singer in The Cat’s Meow.

The highly anticipated PHS annual Homecoming game took place later that day at 7:00 pm. Every year, students excitedly show up to the first home football game of the year to show off school spirit, enjoy a night of fun, and support our student athletes. Just as exciting is the halftime performance, which starred the PHS Studio Band. For the few weeks leading up to the performance, Studio Band musicians worked hard to make this year’s performance even more sensational than last year’s.

Since the Homecoming game wasmoved up a month this year, Studio Band members were also under a time crunch to rehearse.

“We [were] just starting to prepare so the difference this year is that we have less time. We [had] like two and a half weeks to pull this together. I would say it’s more frantic this year,” said Band Director Joseph Bongiovi.

Despite the ticking clock, younger students were looking forward to performing in the classic halftime show.

“I [was] most excited to be playing in front of my classmates and other friends because I love to play in front of people I know... I know [people] will listen to what we are playing and really enjoy it,” said drummer Owen Barry ’25.

After only a few weeks of practice, Studio Band was already beginning to collaborate and merge their sounds—the rhythm section in particular meshed very quickly.

“I mean the rhythm section sounds great—it’s our piano, bass, drums—and the trumpets sound good this year too,” Bongiovi said.

Past performances have included hits like “Treasure” by Bruno Mars and Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke.” Before their performance, Studio Band’s production was under wraps, so the set list was kept secret between its members.

As it turned out, the setlist for the concert was particularly engaging for the audience. Studio Band ended up dazzling the crowed with their renditions of “September” by Earth Wind and Fire, “Runaway Baby” by Bruno Mars, “Lose Yourself ” by Eminem (rapped flawlessly by Koen Moulton ’23), “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, and “Proud Mary” by Tina Turner. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was particularly well recieved by the audience after a surprise solo by PHS Principal Frank Chmiel.

Overall, though there was limited time to rehearse, PHS musicians pulled through with a well-done performance. Despite the football team’s loss, the engaging musical performances and sense of community instilled the sense of school spirit that Homecoming is all about