Students in the stands roared in applause when the Boys’ Basketball team, ranked 40th in the state, ran onto the court. The lights were turned off, with neon beams bouncing off the walls, and the players one-by-one threw hoops with glow-in-the-dark basketballs.

Only a few days after winter break ended, students partied at night in the RWL Gym for a free Neon Pep Rally, sponsored by the Student Government Association (SGA) and Oviedo High School Athletic Boosters Club (OHSABC), in support of Boys Basketball. The ticket to get in was simply to wear a neon shirt, either the student’s own clothing or a $5.00 shirt made by the school. The shirt sale was not for a particular event, but the donations are used for future SGA-sponsored events such as Prom, Neon Jungle, and Homecoming.

“We know OHS loves neon! Many of the same components we love from Neon Jungle [were] recreated and reimaged in the form of a pep rally to support our basketball team,” SGA Advisor Heather DeLong said.

The SGA cleared up the gym, reserved vendors, coordinated with the DJ, and notified student organizations in preparation for the event. The process took from the last week of November to late December. OHSABC covered a large portion of the cost for the DJ and SGA covered everything else from the money received from past fundraisers.

“We have never done an after school pep rally like this before,” Trevor Francis, SGA Senior President, said. “A big obstacle for us was finding who would participate in the games.”

As a solution, a ticket system was created. Slips of paper had the game name on it and were handed to students when entering the gym, nominating them as challengers.

“We tried to think of games that would be easy to see in the dark and came up with some ideas on how to make them glow under the black lights,” Francis said.

After the basketball players made their introduction, the Cheer Competition team performed a routine. Challenges such as “hungry-hungry hippo,” dance battles, and “trash pong” were played on the court after the teams displayed their showcases. During the dance battles, all the students from the bleachers crashed into the contests to join ‐ such as Cotton Eye Joe by Rednex and Wobble by V.I.C.

“The pep rally was really worth going to,” Ricky Nadal, senior and winner of the trash pong game said. “Everyone’s supportive energy towards each other is really uplifting. Along with the games and dances that we got to participate in, it was super fun.”

After the challenges were over, the court was opened up so that students could dance the night away. Reportedly, the first ever after-school neon pep rally was a major success.