The 43rd annual Lobo Gold Rally at Sierra High honored some 742 students for their efforts in and outside the classroom.
Of that, 117 students achieved Lobo Gold standards based on their high grades (4.0 grade point average or better), strong attendance and positive behavior or, as Principal Steve Clark put it, achieving “academic excellence” while balancing school work and other activities.
“They take their education seriously and position themselves for success,” he said at Friday’s fall academic rally held in the school gym.
Another Lobo Gold Rally is planned for the spring.
Clark, who is the school’s third-ever principal – Rick Arucan, who was a subject in the Family Feud skit (more on that), opened the school in 1994 – was amazed at the number of students involved in extracurricular activities at Sierra. He estimated that figure to be somewhere in the ballpark of 75 to 80 percent with the hope of doing even better in the future.
As for Lobo Silver, 325 students on that list had at a 3.25 GPA or better with no failing grade or unsatisfactory citizenships.
Lobo Blue consisted of 300 students with at a 2.25 GPA along with no failing grades or unsatisfactory citizenships.
Clark added that many of the student athletes at the school had over 3.0 GPAs – the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV champion girls tennis team led the way with an overall 3.70 GPA.
As usual, the Lobo Gold Rally, now in its 22nd year, provided plenty of entertainment. “The students created the script,” said Clark.
Of those in attendance – included were Manteca Unified Senior Director of Secondary Education Clara Schmiedt, school board President Stephen Schluer along with trustees Marie Freitas and Karen Pearsall – Evelyn Moore, who was a longtime school board member, received special recognition from Clark based on her support of the Lobo Gold Rally since Day 1.
The Family Feud skit involved the Sierra Family made of staff members going up against student-team known as the Romero Family – the latter won, 8-7.
Some of the questions included school history trivia – Assistant Principal Anthony Chapman was a freshman when the school opened with the aforementioned Arucan being the principal coupled with the year SHS football team won the Division IV state championship (2015) – and information from a survey taken from a poll of 200 students.
Sierra students, for example, picked McDonald’s as their favorite off-campus lunch place. Chicken wrap is their favorite on the cafeteria menu while traffic woes made the top-of-the-list excuse for tardiness.
