Dartmouth High students created plenty of noise and cheer to celebrate the school’s stellar sports teams, generosity and creativity, and, of course, school vacation.

Held on November 21, a day before the big Dartmouth-Fairhaven football game, student-athletes from all of Dartmouth’s fall sports teams helped hype up the crowd with skits, competitions, and recognition.

This year, the high school’s unified athletics program received perhaps the loudest cheers from students. The MIAA and the Special Olympics bestowed National Banner School recognition  upon the program for meeting the Special Olympics' 10 Standards of Excellence. The program brings together special needs students and student-athletes.

“You are all a National Banner School for being so inclusive," said Patti Doherty, Director of Schools and Youth Engagement at Special Olympics Massachusetts. “You are one of 10 schools in all of Massachusetts that are receiving this honor, and only one of 131 out of the entire United States.”

Of course, there was plenty of football talk as well. Varsity football coach Rick White shared how he thinks the Thanksgiving game will go, and it’s good for Dartmouth. He noted the game is rooted in tradition and has been played for nearly 100 years, and shared a lesser-known tradition.

“The loser of the game has to eat crow on Thanksgiving, and the winner gets to eat turkey,” White said. I just want to say we don’t plan on eating crow on Thanksgiving.”    

In addition to skits and competitions, the overall winner of the pep rally was, of course, the seniors. A multitude of factors went into that calculation, including how well each class did on raising canned goods and money for various charities, participated in Spirit Week themed dress-up days, pep rally competitions, and a “loudness contest” measured using a decibel meter.

“The idea is to build school spirit and have it culminate just before the Thanksgiving day game which is the last football game of the year,” said Dartmouth High principal Ross Thibault. “It’s a great way to build school spirit and help the kids realize they’re part of something bigger than themselves.”