By Louis Zylka
The 830 Times
Summer may be coming to an end, but the excitement does not stop there, especially for students at Del Rio High School.
With classes having started Aug. 2, kids are gearing up and hitting the fields to prepare for all the sporting events happening in the fall.
The high school kicked off its school year with the Fall Sports Community Pep Rally Wednesday evening at Walter Levermann Ram Stadium. The event celebrated all the students participating in each of the fall sports programs and the coaches who dedicate their lives to bringing out the best from their Rams and Queens.
Cynthia Salas, Del Rio High School principal, said the pep rally is important because it supports all the students from the high school, Early College High School, Del Rio Middle School and other schools in the district such as Blended Academy. She said the students at Del Rio High are amazing and are excited for the upcoming school year.
“The students are pumped; we started this year with safety protocols but that has not deteriorated their spirit of being Rams,” Salas said.
All the fall sport teams were represented during the evening including cross-country, volleyball, swimming and more. To end the community pep rally, Del Rio honored its football players and their team leaders, who had their first scrimmage Aug. 13 in San Antonio. Roderick Taylor, head coach, said all the teams have been putting in a tremendous amount of work for this upcoming semester.
“We have over 520 student athletes in our football program and I am super proud of that, and their work is showing,” Taylor said. “Our performance is already showing when we went up against another team. Their attitude is there, and it’s a wonderful situation.”
The event featured a huge turnout with friends and families filling up the stadium and showing their school pride. Tristan Sutton, Del Rio High School senior, said all the teams are going to do great this year. He said Wednesday’s pep rally was a bigger success compared to their previous gatherings in 2021.
“Having so much energy coming into the season is unmatched,” Sutton said. “All the teams have been at the gym just as much as (the football team) has, and everybody has been working really hard.”
All the seniors from each team showed up to support the class of 2023. Taylor said the seniors this year have great leadership and are impacting younger students to become stronger athletes.
“Instead of just saying it, (the seniors) are actually doing it with hands-on leadership,” Taylor said. “The best kind of leadership is with influence, and they are influencing the young ones on going the right direction.”
