On Friday afternoon, Picayune Memorial High School cheerleaders, Maroon Tide Marching Band, Pride of the Tide Dance Team and Maroon Tide football team marched from the high school to West Side Elementary School to hold a pep rally for the elementary school students and to sign autographs for students.

The players were greeted by the elementary school students cheering, yelling and overall filled with excitement that the football players were coming to visit.

After the band played the fight song and the cheerleaders performed two more cheers, the football players split up to sign autographs. All the students had created personalized autograph books for the players to sign and a few of the classes even made posters cheering on the team.

Some students asked the players to sign their arms and faces, while others asked for their posters and other memorabilia to be signed.

“I hope our kids do good for you and if they do, I think we’ll come home happy,” said Coach Dodd Lee at the pep rally.

A few fans lined up along the parade route to catch a glimpse of the team as they were marching over, including Mayor Ed Pinero and County Supervisor Sandy Kane Smith.

“We’re very appreciative of West Side Elementary for letting us come over and have this pep rally. It gives our students opportunity to be around the elementary school students and you never know, maybe one day some of these kids will be playing for a state championship or maybe in the band or maybe on the dance team or cheerleader.

“I’m really thankful for their (the community) involvement. It’s going to take a community effort to get behind our team and help them win tomorrow night’s game,” said Dean Shaw, Picayune School District superintendent.

One cheerleader said at the pep rally that the high school should come over to the school more often to have pep rallies because of the excitement of all the students.

“We are very blessed to have such a supportive community,” Shaw said.