By William Prego/Contributing Writer
Food, activities, cheerleaders, live music and more helped kick off the pregame festivities for this past Saturday’s home game against the University of Massachusetts Minutemen.
Thursday, Sept.13, Florida International University alongside BEIN Sports and student-run organization FIU Sunblazers, hosted a pep rally in GC Lawns for students and players to ring in the second home game of the 2018-2019 Panthers football season.
In an effort to boost school spirit, the university has seemingly decided to host pep rally’s every Thursday before an upcoming home game, as this was the second pep rally of the season so far.
“I think events like these boost school spirit. With everything that’s happened over the past year, this is exactly what we as students and the school need,” said student Madison Jimenez, who attended the pep rally.
The pep rally ran from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and gathered quite the crowd, as students, players, cheerleaders and Roary came together to start the pregame celebration.
Free shirts, pizza and photo ops with the players are some of the awesome perks that students who attended the event were able to get. Performances by the FIU Dazzlers and cheerleading team also got the crowd going and noticeably hyped up for the game.
Despite the drive-by shooting that involved FIU running back Anthony Jones and offensive lineman Mershawn Miller just last Thursday, emotions and team spirit were riding high at the pep rally.
Some players even took the chance and grabbed the microphone from the DJ during the pep rally to express their appreciation for the support of the school and asking to continue cheering them on as this is looking to be their “best season yet.”
“I feel like our guys had a purpose coming into this season prior to the incident last week,” said Richard Rivas, FIU student and avid Panther fan at the pep rally. “Something as serious as that is only going to make our guys hungrier and play harder.”
Given the attendance at the pep rally and the spirit shown, Panthers fans are in for a treat this season.
“My expectations for this season are simple — get a bowl win. This is our year, and I’m confident in coach Butch Davis to lead this team to victory and bring this school a winning season,” said Rivas.
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