A Great Pep Rally For The Wildcats!!
Images courtesy of Nate Girvan – Above: Pastor Hunter at the mic amid the players
First Baptist Church of Clarion at the corner of Main Street and Seventh Avenue was the host site, on Thursday night, November 17th, for a big Pep Rally for the Central Clarion Wildcats Football Team, hosted by the Wildcats Boosters, before their PIAA State matchup with Westinghouse the next night.
In addition to being a Pep Rally, the event was also a celebration of the Wildcats fine accomplishments throughout the season, including the program’s first ever District Nine League Region 2 and District Nine Class-AA Championships.
As they entered, the audience was greeted by Orange and Blue Balloons on the ends of the pews in the center isle, with the District Nine Championship Game highlight video (with Mike Kalinowski and Bob “the Governor” Dunkle from EYT/D9Sports.com calling the action), being shown on big screen as seats were filling up. On each side of the platform was a ten foot column of spiraling Orange and Blue Balloons capped with a Football Balloon, as well as with balloons decorating the podium.
Pastor Jason Hunter, sporting an orange Wildcats’ T-shirt, opened the festivities, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to recognize your District Nine AA Champions, the Central Clarion Wildcats,” as the team entered and proceeded down the center and to the podium, amid cheers and applause.
After the Wildcats players, coaches and staff were situated at the platform, Pastor Hunter welcomed everyone to First Baptist Church and mentioned that “We know that we are Baptists. But it’s OK, you can clap, you can scream, you can yell, you can do whatever you can to celebrate these boys’ accomplishments this year. So you make your self at home. We are glad to have you here.”
Pastor Hunter then turned it over to Wildcats Head Coach Dave Eggleton, who began by thanking those who worked to make bring the Pep Rally about. He said, “First off, I just want to thank anyone who had anything to do with this. We’ve just received so much support, so much love from our Boosters, from our Cheerleaders, from our Band, from our fans in all three schools. It’s just been fantastic. So I just thank you guys very much.”
Then a special hype video was played on the big screen.
Next Coach Eggleton introduced Team Captains, Ryan Hummell, Brady Quinn, Dawson Hotchkiss, Jase Ferguson and Noah Naser, who shared about various key points, situations and hard work that led to the team’s success as well as comments that moved the crowd to cheers.
Noah, thanked the parents, the Boosters, the Cheerleaders, the Student Section, the Coaches and the Band.
After giving words of encouragement about the upcoming contest, Coach Eggleton thanked various individuals: sideline helpers, Vance and Kevin Slike, the Booster Club, the staff, the administrations from all three schools (Clarion, North Clarion and Clarion-Limestone).
He gave special recognition to the parents and had them stand and had the gathering give them a round of applause.
Then Coach Eggleton recognized the athletic trainers Emily Lubas (Clarion-Limestone) and Steve Seifert (Clarion Area).
He followed giving special recognition to an individual who has worked tirelessly for the Wildcats (and various other sports teams at Clarion Area) for a number of years and has been an absolute conduit to CSZ and various other print and electronic media in the area. “If you see Mr. (Nate) Girvan over here, walking around (note: large, unsolicited round of applause started right about here), if you see any of the pictures… I know everyone love those pictures on that (Facebook). And he does that out his own goodness of his own heart and his own time and we really appreciate that as well.
The team then left the platform and the Wildcats Cheerleaders took over. They led the fans in the “When I say Blue…” cheer. That followed with the several Cheerleaders and players forming teams of two, in a game of toilet paper mummies. Then six players competed in a contest where they had to eat a roll of Fruit Roll-Ups with their hands behind their backs.
The night concluded with the Wildcats’ players, coaches and staff, Cheerleaders and Student Section displaying “Wildcat signs gathering up front for photos, followed by the team touching fists, “WILDCATS”!
(Great work to those involved in the Pep Rally!!!! Thanks to Nate Girvan for his pics First Baptist for the Youtube video!!)
(Two more photos below link)
First Baptist’s Youtube Pep Rally Video:
More photos:
