On Thursday, Mar. 12, 2026, McCallum High School will hold its first ever ‘Purple Pep Rally’ to commemorate International Women’s Day, which will be nationally honored on Mar. 8. The pep rally is hosted by McCallum’s Peer Assistance and Leadership program (PALS), continuing Richard Cowles’ annual tradition of events hosted in celebration of the holiday when he became the program’s adviser 13 years ago.
“Every year we [PALS] do something for International Women’s Day,” Cowles said. “That originated with me because while I was [serving] in Chad, we were trying to raise awareness there. I brought it to McCallum and with every big project like that, I open it up to the PALS to brainstorm. They thought of a pep rally and I went to Mr. Baxa and he said ‘Yeah, we could to that.’”
Specifically, this event will be held in recognition of McCallum’s female athletes, who Cowles emphasized can get overlooked in society.
“I think that a societal struggle that we have is recognizing the equality of gender,” Cowles said. “Our success as a society would be improved if we recognize the equality and support the equality. That’s the goal of this whole event: to recognize that we don’t have equality, but we should and we need to try to make efforts to make it more equal.”
Senior Caroline Bell agrees. Throughout high school, Bell has been an athlete and leader in both track and softball, slowly realizing how girls’ sports seem to lose the spotlight despite their performance.
“Especially for women’s sports, we [female athletes] don’t get a lot of recognition, especially at higher levels,” Bell said. “A lot of women’s sports are overlooked.”
Junior Nichelle Floyd, a PAL and varsity softball teammate of Bell, has seen similar gender inequality and decided to take action. She found her opportunity through PALS when the class split into groups for brainstorming ideas for International Women’s Day.
“My group was coming up with ideas when it occurred to me to do a pep rally because I know many people love pep rallies,” Floyd said. “We’ve never really had a pep rally centered around girls’ sports. It seemed like an amazing idea to do something like that.”
Floyd eagerly awaits the event, looking forward to the student body being able to experience this untraditional event.
“I’m just most excited to see the plan come to life and see how many students will get involved and attend,” Floyd said. “As a female athlete, we often don’t get the same audience or support as male sports. It’s important to shine a light on women’s athletics and show that we work just as hard and deserve the same recognition. I hope people take away a greater appreciation for women’s sports and a willingness to come out and support us more.”
Similarly, Cowles intends on the ‘Purple Pep Rally’ raising awareness for female athletics and International Women’s Day as a whole.
“I hope that women’s sports recognize their importance,” Cowles said. “It’s important to support those groups. My goal is to get a memory of appreciation for the role of women’s sports and not overlook them in our lexicon of activities.”
Bell agrees, hoping events like this, or simply just the recognition of female athletics, will persist.
“I think this is setting an example,” Bell said. “Having a pep rally like this one is definitely setting a standard that I would like to see in the future, and I know I’m graduating, but I think it’s important to recognize women’s sports and important to recognize how we, here at McCallum, are performing so well in terms of women’s sports.”
In addition to Cheer and Blue Brigade performances and all girls’ sports appearances, Cowles also hopes to honor McCallum’s female athlete legacy by possibly welcoming back alumni to speak.
“We’re going to try to have a speaker come, an athlete,” Cowles said. “There is a former McCallum student that was my student and she’s an Olympic rower, Kate Knifton, so we’re going to try to reach out to her and see if she can come. We’re also going to try to talk to Mr. Eggleston because his daughter plays volleyball for UT. So we’re going to try to get a couple of people to come and talk.”
Bell similarly emphasized that to her, the principal lesson of this pep rally is also about honoring and appreciating the legacy of athletes as International Women’s Day is not just about the present, it is about the strength of all women in history.
“In celebrating International Women’s Day through sports, we are celebrating the legacy of a lot of very strong women that have come before us, both at McCallum, and outside of the school,” Bell said. “It’s important to remember who got us here.”