Advisor’s Note: “Then and Now” is a new idea for story submissions in Cardinal Nation. In the past we have shared stories from previous Mentor High School newspapers including The Mentor Log and Inkwell. Now, beyond just sharing those “blasts from the past,” we ask questions about what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what the future holds. In this story, Halo Ryan revisits a 60-year-old story from The Mentor Log about the state of – what was then – a group called “Pep Club” and asks where it went.

Then

Pep Club Boosting Marked All-Time High

November 23, 1965

This season has been hectic, not only for football players and coaches, but for Mentor High’s Pep Club, too. The Pep Club has done more this year in the way of boosting spirit and morale than ever before. For each week of eight games, spirit ribbons were sold. This let the team members see that the entire school was behind them. They said such things as “Rack the Raiders,” “Stop the Rebels,” and “Bomb the Blue Devils.”

Signs: under the attention of Greg Biddell, gave MHS a feeling of warmth and pride. “Mentor Has the Freeway Crown,” was one of them.

Pep club also had the first assembly at the new high school of the two following assemblies, the latter for Garfield Heights, which produced much enthusiasm for the players.

The football team drew record crowds at every FWC game. Transporting students to two of the furthest away games. Conneaut and Berea were Pep Buses. The club didn’t make any profit from the busses – they were strictly to raise spirit for the games. Where the games weren’t far enough away to afford buses, car caravans were sponsored.

For the Mentor-Harvey game. Over 210 decorated cars arrived at the field. Pep Club paid for all of the crepe paper, tape and signs which adorned the cars. Also for the Friday night Harvey game was a Torchlight Parade. Morale reigned high for this event, also.

The most expensive and time consuming occasion was the Homecoming. The class of ’66 is the only class in the history of Mentor High School to have fire crackers at its homecoming. It will also be the last, because it is now illegal.

Girls stayed up all night in order to make enough paper flowers to decorate the queen’s cars and chairs. An example of this is Joyce Horvath’s memorable slumber party.

Real flowers also had to be ordered-gifts for the queen and court had to be bought- A public address system had to be set up-cars had to be arranged for and obtained.

This was just one season for the Mentor High School Pep Club- one hectic season.

Now

Where Pep Club Is Now

January 2026

That article was about the Pep Club of our school in 1965, which has long since vanished. There isn’t a pep club or anything similar at our school anymore. But that begs the question, where did it go?

The last year that Pep Club, then known as Spirit Club, ran was over 20 years ago! After that, it ceased to exist. As Mrs. Skouby, the former leader of the club, shared when she was asked, the most significant reason for this is that there simply wasn’t enough participation. At the time, it was a tiny group for the school. They needed to commit a large amount of time toward their tasks, like making signs and decorating lockers, and there were often scheduling conflicts with the members’ other obligations, such as extracurriculars and jobs. This made it hard for the Spirit Club to keep working and find the time for what they needed to do, until eventually the group fizzled out and disbanded, being lost to time.

There are a few purposes that a pep club takes on in a school. The most important of these is to promote spirit for both sports teams and the whole school, and to boost morale. They can do this in a lot of ways, such as planning spirit weeks, making posters/signs, leading the student chants at games, holding pep rallies for either specific teams or the whole school, and promoting specific people and events. In addition, a pep club can work with other clubs and support them. They can also collaborate with other clubs to make larger, more impressive events, and can serve to act as the center of school spirit and the student community, connecting with many parts of the body. In addition, they can also act as a low-pressure, positive way for students to get involved in something, which can be very healthy for them.

As of right now, a lot of clubs and organizations at our school share some of the purposes normally assigned to a pep club. The spot of a pep club has been somewhat mixed with multiple groups. One notable one would be the Student Government. They are in charge of plenty of events in the school, including the fall and spring assemblies, which would be the closest thing to a pep assembly. A pep club would likely be in charge of those if they were to be present at our school. Student Government also aids with many collections, such as food drives, blood drives, and fundraisers around the school. It’s possible a pep club would help with some of these. Also, poster-making, which is a major activity that pep clubs are famous for, is a responsibility mostly for the actual team/club the specific posters apply to, or for groups that relate to them. Something that wouldn’t necessarily be done by a pep club would be the morning Drumline performances that walk throughout the buildings for the football team on Fridays with home games. These also increase school spirit and raise excitement for the football teams. Similar to this are the school-wide clap-outs that occur whenever a Mentor High School group wins a regional competition and makes it to the state level. These clap-outs typically take place at the start of Mod 3. This has happened multiple times throughout this year.

All of these roles and actions that a pep club commonly does can benefit people in many ways. Pep clubs can help increase pride in the school and build the community, expanding on the shared connection of the students and staff and fostering an important sense of belonging within everyone. This sense of belonging is an essential need that many could argue is becoming rarer based on multiple factors and reports. Therefore, having a pep club can help some individuals meet that need. It would also encourage more involvement and participation in events and sports, as well as increase the confidence of the people in them, knowing that more people are cheering for them and supporting them. A pep club would even provide a place for people to get involved in itself. In fact, these benefits may be why both of Mentor’s middle schools, Shore and Memorial, currently have pep clubs of their own. Currently, the middle schools have them, but the high school does not, which means that the pep club is no longer available when students move to the high school level. If it were reinstated at the high school, this would be fixed, and there wouldn’t be an inconsistency.

However, there would be some downsides to this club coming back. The issue of conflicting schedules, which killed it originally, would still continue today. Pep club would have to find ways to get around commitments such as sports, other clubs, jobs, studying, and community service, which the hypothetical members would all also have to attend to. Also, it might take away from some of the other groups at the school, such as the cheerleaders and the Student Government. They would have to cooperate with them to make sure they all get a chance to shine and contribute to the school. In addition to that, the midday rallies that pep clubs are most known for could bore or even annoy the students of the school if everyone is required to attend them, which would go against the point of it all. They could also interfere with class time, which could irritate teachers and interrupt their plans.

So, what now? Should the Spirit Club come back to our building, or was its death ultimately a needed one?