The new athletic facility has come with many new perks; a new swimming pool for meets, a new wrestling room for duals, a new gym for sports of all types. It is by far more appealing than our traditional in-ground gym that has been around since before the turn of the century. Although it is old, the in-ground gym holds a special place in a Redskin’s heart, considering all the rich tradition it is responsible for (hence, “traditional gym”). Most notably, the traditional gym is the home of the good ol’ loud and proud pep assemblies.  So, when the idea of having the pep assembly in the new gym was proposed, several students and staff grew weary. First semester’s assemblies were held in the traditional gym, however administration decided “New year, New venue” when students returned from winter break.

The week building up to the pep assembly initiated questions like “Where will the band be?”, “where will my class be seated?”, “How will ‘floor’ work?” Aside from all of that, many were worried about the acoustics too, seeing it won’t be as loud in the new gym. All of these questions were answered on January 18^th, when the pep assembly, which also happened to be the Homecoming assembly, took place in the new gym.

It was definitely an awkward experience for students. Most were looking around wondering “what’s next?”, others were holding up signs as if it was a sporting event, and most shockingly, the Seniors were actually participating. It was truly weird. Knowing there were mixed feelings, the Journalism crew took to twitter asking the rowdy Redskins of their opinions. In a “favorite for/ retweet for” poll, students were asked which gym they prefer for their assemblies. The response was outstanding; resulting in 121 people in favor of the traditional gym and 9 in favor of the new gym.

While it’s nearly obvious why most were in favor of the traditional, it is not so clear why a few liked the new gym. Belen Bernadac, senior, liked the new gym because it was less crowded and not as hot. Bri Schock, a junior, refers to the old gym “it feels like you’re isolated from the student body when you’re on the floor. I didn’t feel that way in the new gym”.  North High’s Athletic Director Brian Becker, who usually emcees the pep assemblies, has mixed feelings about the new venue. “It was logistically more challenging, but I thought it went really well. Kids were more spread out and it turned out to be a good pep assembly”. When asked where the future pep assemblies would be held he responded “the administrators will ultimately decide”, leaving the student body to wonder where our next assembly will be located. The next scheduled pep assembly is on March 25^th, unfortunately that’s all we know about the assembly.