By Brian Zanzonico
"Give me a J! Give me an S! Give me an S!," she said. "What's that spell? John Street School!"
With that the temporarily silent gym erupted. Teachers, administrators and parents of the Franklin Square school, along with Assemblyman Tom Alfano and State Senators Dean Skelos and Mike Balboni, joined in. The reason? A pep rally, the likes of which the school district hadn't seen before.
For the 6th year, Alfano, the New York Knicks and the New York Liberty teamed up for an academic pep rally to gear up students for the new year. The past five pep rallies were held in Elmont schools. This was the first year the pep rally made its way to Franklin Square.
Preaching the importance of reading and staying motivated to learn, former New York Liberty star Kym Hampton dropped by, took some foul shots, and signed autographs for students.
Students got a surprise when they saw the Knickmobile, a state-of-the-art truck equipped with basketball hoops, a talking scoreboard, and PlayStation 2 consoles, parked outside.
"There are a lot of pep rallies for sports, but not enough about academics," Alfano said. "Few [students] will achieve athletic heights, but many can reach academic heights. This is all about motivating the young."
Franklin Square Board of Education President Joe Armocida called joining basketball and academics "a great combination."
"Put those two together, you get the kids really excited to learn," he said.
