Rock Rally ready to hype up students for Homecoming

The Rock Rally on Friday is all about getting students hyped up for Homecoming.

Students are expected to bring their Chippewa spirit together at 8 p.m. in Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium.

“I think Rock Rally is a really great way to get students fired up for actual homecoming week,” Rockford senior Megan Ellinger said. “We bring out the dance team. We bring the cheerleaders, the football team and it’s really just a good way to showcase our school spirit.”

During the Rock Rally, teams will compete for the Maroon Cup by showcasing their mock rock performances, which are no longer than seven minutes. Each showcase must go with the Rock Rally theme “All that glitters is Chippewa Gold.”

“As for as the Maroon Cup, it kind of just symbolizes that spirit people have for Central,” Clarkston senior Kristin Boozer said. “When they win the Maroon Cup, they have showed how much they truly participate in things at our school and really buy into everything  at our school. It’s kind of a symbol of being a student at Central.”

Students are able to register online as an individual participant for the Rock Rally and be assigned a team, Ellinger said.

“So that way, even if they’re not affiliated with the group or maybe they’re in a group, but their group is not large enough or dedicated enough to participate in Homecoming, they can join in all those that are in competition in the week-long fun event,” she said.

From A capella groups to other student musicians, students get to see all other entertainment as well and see what students in our school are doing, Boozer said.

“Every year, we just try to get more and more teams excited about participating in it and get really a lot of involvement from school,” Boozer said. “That’s kind of one of the final events for the week, so we’re just trying to build up the spirit that last night before the game and really get people coming out and joining the event and really cheering for their team and having Central spirit.”

Detroit junior Vincent Thurman enjoys attending the Rock Rally and participated as a member on the cheer team his freshman year.

“Rock Rally is one of those events you have to attend in order to really understand our (how) much the university means to you and everyone around you,” Thurman said. ”The connection between students and the university really shines maroon and gold when Homecoming rolls around each year and Rock Rally is kind of like the pre-game show for Homecoming the next day.”

Boozer said with success in the last few years, students have come out and really loved it.

Though several teams are competing against one another, Boozer said as a school, students are all working together by showing school spirit and making this a Homecoming week to remember.

“I think one thing that is emphasized in rock rally is that it is a competition all week but in the end, everyone all kind of comes together,” Boozer said. “They all tend to have a common goal that they’re all really just supporting CMU and supporting student life and our vision of really getting student spirit up, so even though everyone is still fired up and trying to win the competition at the same time, they all really have the same goal of CMU spirit.”