And the crowd goes wild! Robbie Galvin gave his high school students something to cheer about during a school-wide pep rally on August 25. The history teacher, 30, had invited his girlfriend of more than a year, 26-year-old Sydney Wright, to the pep rally, where he and the school’s athletic director, Scott Kelly, sang along to the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way.”
Upon wrapping up the performance, Galvin changed T-shirts and the mood shifted as Bruno Mars’ “Marry You” piped over the sound system.
In a video clip filmed by a school representative, Wright can be seen looking bewildered and then emotional as she’s escorted onto the basketball court. There, in front of 2,000 students, Galvin drops to one knee and asks Wright to marry him. Though it’s not apparent from the video whether or not she mouthed an actual “yes,” the look of joy on her face gives her answer away.
“The reaction the kids gave was unbelievable and hers was as well,” Galvin told ABC News. “It was just unreal watching the video. I just feel so loved.”
Galvin later revealed to CBS affiliate 1010 WINS that the proposal had been a long time coming. “I have been planning the proposal for about a month now,” Galvin told the station. “Our school had a planned pep rally in preparation for our first home football game against a crosstown rival so I thought that would be an incredible way to propose to the woman of my dreams.”
“Sydney was clueless, which made it all the more special,” he added. “We had talked about marriage. Anytime she brought up engagement I played dumb even though I had it all planned out.”
The couple hopes to wed in early June, after the end of the school year. Watch the footage above.