Gallery • 23 Photos

Sophomores celebrate an event victory, forming a sea of blue. (Photo by McKinley Pieper)

As the first annual Class Comp quickly approached the student body, Palos Verdes High School leadership programs, such as ASB, prepared to make this year’s competition as spirited as possible.

Sophomore Class President Koa Vetterlein took part in designing posters for his class, along with all the other sophomores who participate in ASB.

“Everyone in ASB gets into groups by their grades and makes posters. Each class has their own color, Freshmen are yellow, Sophomores are blue, Juniors are orange, and Seniors are green. ASB goes all out and decorates the posters for each class with paint, glitter and their grade color,” Vetterlein said.

Besides posters, ASB got together to brainstorm ideas for activities and games that involve the entire school, including the staff. They began planning this event since the week before Thanksgiving break.

“Throughout the weeks before Class Comp, we come up with ideas for games, and then the morning of the event we get excused from our first period to decorate the entire gym,” said Vetterlein.

This December’s Class Comp was a new experience for the Freshmen class. Vetterlein predicted that even though they will enjoy the event, they will most likely be shy and feel intimidated by the upperclassmen.

“I think [the freshmen] are going to be reserved. I do not think they will be very spirited, but the same thing happened last year. I feel like freshmen are never as spirited as the other classes just because they are new,” Vetterlein said.

Sophomore Graysen Bradley, in charge of sea king pride in ASB, worked alongside with Vetterlein to help prepare the activities to pump up the crowd.

“[The games] are not going to be the same as last year, they are never the same. We do know what they are, but we cannot share them yet. Everyone should get excited though because they are games that include the teachers as well,” Bradley said.

Besides ASB, there was another team that took part in making sure students had the best class comp possible.

Senior Marina Kare is a dancer on Choreo. Since this is her last year, it was her goal to pump up the entire school and show them the talent each dancer on the team has. To achieve this, Choreo started rehearsals this summer.

“We learned the dance a month before school started. We practice for about a month to two months before class comp,” Kare said.

“We are going to be performing a hip hop routine to the song ‘Upgrade’ by Beyonce. Hopefully this will engage the students and the staff,” said Kare.

While Choreo continued to rehearse, Kare being the leader of the dance team, recognized that there many new faces. She believed that this year’s team is very spirited and talented as well.

“We definitely have a lot more freshmen than we did in the past, but they are all really amazing dancers. Class Comp is a very different environment because it is the entire school watching us perform, and especially since we position them in front of their class and that is very scary,” said Kare.

With all the hard work put into Class Comp by ASB and Choreo, both hoped that this will open the eyes of freshmen and recognize they are apart of an amazing school with lots of spirit.

“I think everyone will have a good time at class comp this year, especially since it is the first one. Even though the freshman may be intimidated, this is the time where they realize they are apart of PV High, and what we do here is great and everyone is super spirited,” said Vetterlein.

Many Seniors believed this year’s class comp was inclusive and very important for the Class of 2019 as a whole.

Senior Dana Otera feels that Class Comp shows school spirit and brings the whole student body together.

“I think [Class Comp] is a fun event each semester to have and it brings the entire school together as one and makes sure that all the grade levels have school spirit,” said Otera.

Senior Taylor Bockrath agreed that Class Comp serves the purpose to unite all four classes. She felt that this year’s competition was more inclusive and engaging.

“It was fun to see people you don’t normally see go up and play the games. This year I got to participate in the finish the lyric game which was very exciting, especially since I’m a senior this year,” Bockrath said.

Overall, this year’s Class Comp demonstrated to the freshmen class how much school spirit their peers have and how the school wants people of all kinds to participate in the games to unite the grade levels and the school.