On the first day of the 2017 school year, nearly 1800 students and staff packed into the gymnasium for the opening-day assembly. The assembly lasted about 45 minutes and was full of informational things.

As students filled into the gym, juniors and seniors soon realized that they got moved to the west side of the gym. The freshman class of 2021 has the most students in a classification in the 52 years that West has been around. Since the freshman class is so big, they would not fit on the west side of the gym and the flip was made.

As the assembly went on, students were introduced to the new student body student council members, members of the administrative staff, and the cheerleaders and Poms.  The student body was also given a quick lesson on how to safely watch the solar eclipse that happened later that afternoon.

Once all the information was given out, the traditional assembly event happened. The Poms performed for the first time in front of the 2017 student body. They performed the dance that qualified them for Nationals. Junior Pom Haylie Juhl stated, “It was nerve racking performing in front of the student body for the first time but everything turned out good.”

The cheerleaders also performed and led a cheer.  The band played the school fight song and the senior class won the spirit stick.