Junior Joe Sullivan sported both funky sideburns and an attitude at Wednesdays Pep Night at Baker High School. Sullivan shared center stage during the Class of 2003s medley of tunes from the film Grease with Misty Scott, not pictured. Behind Sullivan, who lip-synched songs, are fellow mechanics (aboard Greased Lightning, from left) Jack Sackos, Mitch Grove, Matt Hensley and Nathan Defrees. (Baker City Herald photograph by Mike Ferguson).

By MIKE FERGUSON

Of the Baker City Herald

Wednesdays Pep Night event gave Baker High School students opportunity to strut their stuff in nontraditional ways including performing a skit based on a childrens television show that poked fun at their principals.

It also gave them the chance to crown this years Homecoming Queen and King: Char Bunch of Durkee and Nickoli Strommer of Baker City.

Wednesdays events were the preview to tonights 7 p.m. Homecoming football game against the Grant Union Prospectors at Baker Bulldog Memorial Stadium. Homecoming festivities will be presented during halftime.

But it was the skits, backdrops, songs, spell-outs and cheers contributed by each of the four classes that really raised the gymnasium roof Wednesday.

Some highlights:

The freshman skit, a spoof of the childrens television hit Blues Clues, saw principal Jerry Peacock (played by Billy Phillips, complete with bald pate) receive a lecture from assistant principal Patti Alexander (played by Ashley Chase) upon the discovery that Peacock had been a Prospector growing up.

The juniors placed second with their skit, a takeoff on the film Grease. In their offering, Baker greasers defeated their Grant Union counterparts in three competitions: hair-combing (the farther your comb slips off your head, the better your ducktail), dancing, and a remote-controlled car race for pink slips.

The juniors also won for their lighted backdrop, which sported headlights and a 3-D automobile.

But it was the seniors who won the trophy for their skit, a television program called Baker Bandstand which featured their own original music.

At first, the band broke into the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic, Sweet Home Alabama.

Hold on! said Ty Meyers, the bands lead singer, halting the song during its memorable opening guitar riff. Were not that old!

Band members then played their original song.

The spell-outs, in which students graphically portray their class names, had at least two memorable moments. The freshmen won with their Spy TV group of cloak-and-dagger, trenchcoat-clad spies, who opened their spy-issue coats to reveal the letters F-R-E-S-H-M-E-N painted on their T-shirts.

Not to be outdone, seven senior boys donned wild wigs and started to lip-sync to a rock song. Just as they got going, seven female members of the royal court attacked the boys from behind, ripping their pull-away shirts to reveal andquot;S-E-N-I-O-R-Sandquot; painted on the singers chests.

The seniors won for the best cheer, while the freshmen were rewarded for best overall spirit.

The juniors Grease medley, including Greased Lightning and Beauty School Dropout, won for best song.

Seniors Anna Mezger-Sieg, Lindy Morgan, Lily Shipsey and Emily Short dressed as cats straight from the Broadway hit of the same name. The four emceed the event, replete with andquot;Purrrrfectandquot; banter.

A capacity crowd attended.