Story by Uma Chakraborty
Staff Writer

The SPHS 2025 Winter Assembly kicked off with the SPHS Band playing instrumental Christmas music as students flooded into the auditorium. Senior Riis Dickey and senior Commissioner of Assemblies Baron Shroff came on stage to lead the crowd through class roll call. Afterwards, students rose for the national anthem sung by senior Andres Urzua.

Dance III took the stage and danced through vibrant lighting and fully black outfits. Shroff returned once they finished and announced the winners for the Winter Formal Video Contest. Seniors Tiger Carpenter, Ian Garcia, Romy Terhune, Taavi Sirota, and junior Moxxie Ross, won third place and their video played shortly after the announcement. 

Sound Squad, a group of musicians, with Urzua featuring as their lead singer, then performed Last Christmas after the video. Towards the end of the performance, Shroff joined in, singing alongside Urzua. The pair wished the student body a happy holiday before the act concluded. 

Senior Commissioner of Athletics Trey Freking then introduced the captains of the SPHS winter sports: girls’ and boys’ soccer, girls’ and boys’ basketball, and girls’ water polo. 

Color Guard performed to an instrumental version of Adele’s Set Fire to the Rain following the interviews with silver flags. The second place winners of the video contest, juniors Batia Lou and Claire Jin, had their video played.  

A few moments after, the band rose to play their holiday medley, consisting of songs like Jingle Bells and Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree. After the band performance, the first place winners of the video contest presented their video to the audience. Then, a group made up of Dance III members gave a graceful ballet performance to Marzipan from The Nutcracker. 

Drama Club president and vice president announced information about the SPHS spring musical Mean Girls. In tribute to the musical drama recreated a scene from the movie, singing Jingle Bell Rock. 
As the assembly was slowly drawing to an end, advanced hip-hop came on stage to bring the energy back up by performing an act to Dodger Blue by Kendrick Lamar. Finally, the Winter Formal announcement video showed the theme and location of the upcoming dance in the second semester: Winter Formal Under the Northern Lights at University Club of Pasadena. As students filed out of the auditorium, the band wished goodbye with repeats of the holiday medley.