Spirit. Concessions. Saint Francis. Football.

This Friday, the students of Jesuit High School and St. Francis High School will come together in Jesuit’s own Fr. Barry Gymnasium for the first annual night rally. The goal of this event is to prepare Jesuit and its sister school to come out full force to cheer on the Jesuit varsity football team during this year’s Holy Bowl.

Holy Bowl is one of the most anticipated and noteworthy events of the school year and an important Jesuit High School tradition. Student excitement is vital to make it a success.  

Jesuit rallies usually follow a predictable formula. However, Jesuit’s Executive Council plans to make this one unique.

“The Exec Council was thinking of ideas to spice up rallies, because they were getting pretty stale and routine,” said president of the executive council, Theo Christopulos ’16.

To add a higher sense of interest for the rallies, the Executive Council planned an entire night to enthuse the students with food trucks and a high energy environment.

“I challenged the Executive Council to come up with new ideas this year that balanced respecting our traditions and starting some new ones. The night rally is one idea that blended those two ideas,” said Mr. Tim Kelly, the assistant dean of students and director of student activities at Jesuit.

Allowing St. Francis to join Jesuit’s Holy Bowl rally is the factor that the Executive Council plans on using to draw more Marauders to the already sizable Galley Crew.

“The number one goal of the rally is to have some fun and build some momentum going into Holy Bowl. The Executive Council also thought this could be a great way to increase our interactions with St. Francis High School,” Mr. Kelly said.

“This Student Council is changing the culture of Jesuit, which means that we are trying some pretty radical things this year. If the ideas flop, they flop. We have to take risks to have success. We go all in with whatever we do. Babe Ruth didn’t play baseball to bunt.” Theo said.

It is the hope of Theo and his classmates that the first annual night rally will start a tradition for the ages.