The gym lights shut off. Phone lights turned on. The woodshed was destroyed. At Etowah’s annual Battle of Towne Lake pep rally, students left the gym pumped for Friday’s game against Woodstock.   

“It was the best pep rally I think we’ve ever had. It was fun, and it got me hyped for the game,” Rachel Ransom, senior, said.  

Amanda Massey and Victoria Carter, teachers and coaches at Etowah, organized the rally in order to fire up students for the game. With the help of the cheerleaders, the football team, staff, and the members of Eagles Connection at Etowah, Massey and Carter created a memorable spectacle for the student body. 

“I think the pep rally just seemed rushed. I think it was our best pep rally yet, but the school can still improve the pep rallies overall,” Madison Johns, junior, said.  

At the beginning of the pep rally, each schools’ mascot battled one other in an epic showdown in the middle of the gym. After defeating the Woodstock Wolverine, Etowah’s Eagle dragged the defeated mascot off the court. The lights dimmed, and moments later the senior football players broke free from a makeshift woodshed, made after the one at Woodstock’s field, and the students went wild. 

“The fight between the mascots was surprising, and it made everyone really pumped up,” Campbell Munsey, freshman, said. 

The pep rally concluded with a tug-of-war battle between each grade level, and teachers took pies in their faces to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The excitement for the game followed students out the doors of the gym as they left school. 

“The pep rally got me really pumped for the football game,” Kiersten James, freshman, said. 

The day ended with an Etowah victory over Woodstock. Nick Maddox, junior running back, scored the last touchdown of the night, making the final score of the game 32-27.