Chanting along with the entire student body, watching elaborate dances and listening to the athletes of the season speak about upcoming games. That is what has been missing this past year due to online learning. But on Friday, the first in-school pep rally of the year will be held on the football field during DEN.

The event will be led by the familiar faces and anchors of the Wolfcast, juniors Katie Whitmarsh, Jack Polishook and Abby Martinez, and will showcase many forms of entertainment, including a kick routine from the Celebrities, a pyramid routine from the cheerleaders and a band performance. There will also be a student vs. teacher game. The only drastic difference is the venue.

“We’re doing it outside, on the football field,” head cheer coach Nadira King said. “Basically, there still is a capacity that we have to follow for people indoors. So in order to be able to have everybody go out there and stuff, we had to do it outside. So it’ll be a new thing because we’ve never had a pep rally before outside, so it’ll be something new and it could be[come] a tradition.”

It’s going to be the first high school pep rally for freshman and sophomores, and it will also be the first one some upperclassmen are participating in. For example, junior and Celebrity Junior Lieutenant, Sandra Ziegler, will be performing for the first time..

“I haven’t participated in a pep rally before, so although I am a little nervous, I am extremely excited,” Ziegler said.  “I’ve been anticipating performing at a pep rally for two years now. The last pep rally I attended was my freshman year, and I specifically remember sitting in the audience watching the Celebrities dance. It’s surreal and so exciting that even after missing out on a year of pep rallies, I will now be out there performing with the team as a Junior Lieutenant.”

The Celebrities have been working hard in preparation of the pep rally and their performance will consist of a high energy traditional kick routine. The band will be playing the music for their routine live, which creates a more excited atmosphere, not only for the Celebrities, but for the crowd as well, according to Ziegler.

“The team originally learned this dance routine in the summer because we performed it towards the beginning of football season,” Ziegler said. “But to prepare for the pep rally, we have been running this routine everyday during practice in order to build and maintain our stamina. Since the pep rally got postponed, we have had some extra time to make sure this routine is clean and ready for the performance. This routine is very detailed, but we have worked very hard making it the best it can be.”

Alongside Ziegler, junior Katie Whitmarsh has also been preparing for the pep rally, but in a different way. Being one of the Wolfcast anchors directly leads to being involved with pep rallies, since it was decided around two years ago that the Wolfcast anchors would emcee pep rallies. This isn’t the first time Whitmarsh has attended a pep rally, and it’s also not her first time planning one.

“I have [planned a pep rally before] actually yeah,” Whitmarsh said. “I went to Lake Travis and right before I moved here, we planned just a freshman-only pep rally because I was a freshman while I was there. Then I moved here and they had the pep rally scheduled and everything, so I got to leave school early, go back to Lake Travis, host the pep rally, then come back to Cedar Park for school.”

The schedule Friday will look a little different, with DEN time being moved to after 6th period. Students will be released by grade level from DEN to walk out to the stadium for the pep rally. Whitmarsh encourages students to attend and enjoy the event.

“Making sure people have fun, that’s the whole purpose of it,” Whitmarsh said. “Be prepared to be hype and nice and loud. And participate, it’s a good thing to participate, it’s not weird or lame if you do.”