(COVINGTON, La.) — Over the past couple of years, much dispute has been raised on the topic of pep rallies, including whether St. Paul’s sister school, St. Scholastica Academy, should participate and whether the events are worth the effort.

“If they’re not done well, they can be a waste of time” Football Head Coach Ken Sears said. “It really all depends on who organizes it and the amount of time and effort they put into it.”

This year, a couple of student council members accepted the job of changing the football fanscape. Treasurer Logan Haydel and Representative Sam Dufour made a few changes, such as the band’s seating arrangements at football games, but the most significant difference at pep rallies was the absence of the SSA student body.

“The absence of SSA is something that I think needs to be corrected,” junior Nick Ashton said. “I’ve heard firsthand accounts from alums that pep rallies are more fun and create more enthusiasm when SSA students are present.”

However, many SSA students don’t feel the same. A few, in fact, didn’t even know the recent pep rally was planned.

“We did not feel that you all deliberately uninvited us from pep rallies,” SSA student Emily Groce said, “nor did we feel bygone or disremembered. In fact, we really didn’t think too much of it.”

SSA, located a few blocks away from St. Paul’s, has to make quite a sacrifice to come to a St. Paul’s pep rally. Their entire student body has to pile into buses and file onto St. Paul’s campus, using valuable school resources and missing classtime.

“It’s useless for SSA to waste half of their day to come to a pep rally where half of the student body doesn’t even participate,” St. Paul’s sophomore Ryan Lavin said. “Also, when SSA has come previously, we’ve had to sit in the bleachers in Hunter Stadium, and this causes even less student participation.”

After this past pep rally’s success, the Student Council is more sure than ever that only the St. Paul’s student body is needed for the success of pep rallies.

“Personally, I think that the students are much more verbose without the SSA student body,” Student Council President Leland Van Deventer said. “We tend to act differently than how we normally would when girls are present.”

Historically, SSA has always been invited to SPS pep rallies. In fact, in most old yearbook pictures depicting pep rallies, SSA students are present and inducing pandemonium. The pep rallies in 1986 were named “Wolf Mania” because of the electrified band and wholehearted crowd, according to the 1986 St. Paul’s Conifer.

“Take one Friday afternoon,” the book reads, “blend in 623 slightly sweaty teenagers, add a generous sprinkling of high-stepping band members, a box of cheerleaders, a ‘passel’ of SSA girls, bake in the gym at precisely 94 degrees at 2:00 in the afternoon for one hour, and you have one mighty moving Pep Rally, Wolves’ style.”

The next pep rally will be this afternoon at 2:30 to prepare for tonight’s Homecoming game, and the only girls present will be the cheerleaders, dance team, and Homecoming court.

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Were students simply more infatuated with the idea of a pep rally two decades ago? If so, did SSA’s presence have any affect towards that? The opinions of St. Paul’s students on this subject vary tremendously.  What do you think? Speak your thoughts in the following poll.