An on-time start, a quick pace, and shorter-than-normal cheers made for an assembly that ran twenty minutes short, Thursday, Oct. 18, as students gathered in Ka’ulaheanuiokamoku Gymnasium to end Homecoming Week with a class cheer and step competition.

“We wanted to make sure that there was enough time for all classes to do their cheers,” said Kaleihoku Kubota, student body president.

But it didn’t matter. Students took advantage of the extra time to take group pictures in their class t-shirts with gym walls covered in Spirit Week signs, balloons and streamers as a backdrop. Middle school students were also invited to sit in on the annual festivities.

Though the senior class eventually won both class cheer and step, all classes brought the intensity as they presented the cheers and routines that they’d been working on for weeks.

The freshman step group started their routine by descending the stairs of the bleachers next to their class, and once the step started, pink pom-poms fluttered in the air as the freshmen class cheered on.

Then, the sophomores were determined to get their class hyped as they stomped in sync to the middle of the gym. Their silver hula skirts moved back and forth while the step group clapped and stomped out their routine. The sophomore class kept them going by cheering them on and waving their hands in the air.

As the junior step group came to the gym floor with wacky orange shorts over their jeans, the rest of the class jumped up and down in the bleachers. Their step group was small in numbers, having only five members, but big in spirit.

“We were pretty satisfied with our performance. It was the best from what we made out of it. When my class was cheering for us, we felt supported,” junior Malia Molina said.

The senior step group stepped in style as they broke up into two lines, boys against girls. From there, the cheers of the senior class kept the steppers energized and motivated.

As the freshmen competed in their very first class cheer competition, they filled the gym with their voices, claps and transitions from standing to sitting positions. From singing songs like “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj and “Sorry For Party Rocking” by LMFAO, they added their own flare by changing up the words and making the song match their unique personalities.

The sophomore class cheer was full of big movements like having the students do the wave while yelling “2015!” Their most memorable part was when a grey donkey jumped in front of the class and helped lead the cheer with Halia Kekuewa and Tana Tua.

The junior class cheer started off with a bang as they yelled “2014, 2014, 2014, BOOM!” Kela Killam led the class with energy and got them to stomp and clap in unison. Their spirit was off the charts.

The senior class ended the competition was a school unifying cheer by yelling “pump, pump, pump it up. Pump that Warrior spirit up!” and jumping from one side of the bleachers to another. At their last homecoming week, the seniors left a lasting impression on both judges and students.

To top it off, the entire student body and faculty gathered in the middle of the gym, linked hands and sang “Sons of Hawai’i.”

“I saw a lot more spirit during class cheer than I  saw this whole week,” said ASKSM President Kaleihoku Kubota.