The Homecoming Pep Rally here at LHS is an excellent way to get students excited about Homecoming, football, and the other sports we celebrate. However, it feels like something is often missing from such spirited events. Maybe it’s time for other areas of LHS to share the spotlight.

It seems there’s a bit of a disparity between certain extracurriculars and others. Sports programs are shown off more, celebrated more. Their achievements seem to hold more importance than something such as the Speech Team. Now, it is absolutely fine that we recognize when our sports programs succeed. After all, they deserve it for their hard work. The only problem is that we never take a moment to look at the other activities in front of the entire school and see what they have done.

Granted, the Homecoming Pep Rally is mainly intended for sports, so perhaps shoehorning other events in wouldn’t be the best idea. But, that doesn’t mean there’s no solution. At the rally, for example, the LHS Dance Team performed and the Band provided music as well, which are good steps forward.

In the past, there have been cases of more diverse celebrations. A few years ago, some members of the Speech Team performed their piece at a pep rally, which is a great example of more projects getting to shine. The Variety Show was also a wonderful example of students from different areas showing off their talents.

Too often, we don’t fully appreciate activities that don’t have a concrete achievement tied to them such as trophies or titles. That’s something that LHS could fix over the coming years. Celebrating other clubs could be an opportunity to show off school culture, which in turn would inspire students. There are so many clubs, from Diversity to Spell Bowl to Tattler, that it’d be a shame if we didn’t see all that they do.

It should not be made out that non-sports programs always get the short end of the stick. It’s just that there’s a little bit of inequality in public recognition. The border between certain activities and others here at LHS needs to be blurred, and pep rallies would be an excellent way to introduce that. It is absolutely important that we give our sports programs the recognition they deserve. However, it wouldn’t hurt at all to let the rest of our extracurriculars share the spotlight every once in a while.