This year’s basketball homecoming was full of fun, new experiences. The week of homecoming always starts with dress-up days; this week’s themes were based on states so it could be like we were visiting them on one huge road trip. Monday was Florida: students dressed in floral prints and wore sunglasses to signify the beach life. On Tuesday, the student body dressed preppy or in business attire for New York Day. Wednesday we all took a hike in Colorado and dressed as lumberjacks or hikers. Thursday was California Day. This one was probably the most dressed up day besides black and gold day on Friday.

The pep rally was definitely an exciting one, it all kicked off with a performance by the gold dusters and the announcement of the king and queen candidates. Representing JROTC: Abby Lee and Nathan Phillips. Beta: Chris Sutton and Josie Tripp. Student Council: Austin Keller and Abby Parson. Basketball: Logan Winkleman and Marissa Hale. Music Department: Colton Helms and Ashley Yoder. Publications: Easton Elrod and Maya Francis. Cheerleading: Leah Lindsey and her escort Seth Miller. DECA/FBLA/FTA: Brent Turnbaugh and Lauren Wagganer. FFA: Noah Korokis and Mackenzie Phillips. Gold Dusters: Emily Kuehl and her escort Dylan St. Clair. Scholar Bowl: Jacob Mungle and Molly Sikes

After the walking of the King and Queen candidates, the games truly began. It was a race to the spirit stick, and all four classes had their minds set on winning it. The first game that all the grades participated in was basketball tic-tac-toe. In this game three students from every grade level ran from half court, shot, and made a basket. Then, they sprinted back and placed three x’s or o’s in a row to win.

The next game was just for seniors: the annual ships and sailors game. All of the seniors were invited down on to the gym floor to listen and obey the commands given. The seniors were given the instructions and ready to play. After a tense game, Dylan St. Clair came out as the champion.

The next activity on the agenda was the relay race between all of the grades, and the juniors ended up winning this one. During the football homecoming, I’m sure you remember the Mr. Blackcat contest that senior Clemens Novak won. Well, at this pep rally we held the first Miss Blackcat pageant. This competition was between: Freshman Sydney Brunk, Sophomore(s) Hayleigh Locke and Kristen Mungle, Junior Abbey Sullins, and Senior Anne White. Sydney Brunk ended up impressing the judges the most with her 30-second portrait of Mr. Carver, her catwalk, and her ability to quickly think and answer a question.

The two last activities of pep rally are my favorites, the scavenger hunt, and the scream off.  The scavenger hunt is an event where eight students (two from each grade)  race to find random objects from the crowd. It gets very intense, often times people are throwing shoes, wallets, coins, and even running out of the stands to be an object themselves. However, this year they made sure to clarify that you were NOT allowed to throw things at the people. Lastly, the scream off. The one time where students are expected to be loud and proud, the junior class, however, surprised us all and didn’t scream at all! When it was their turn to try and be louder than the rest, they simply just turned away from the cheerleaders and did nothing. We all know that they are quite possibly the loudest class so why they did this is unclear. The freshmen ended up winning the scream off.

Now it was time for the big reveal. Who will win the spirit stick? As you could probably guess, the seniors won. Most say that it is rigged for the seniors win every time, and I am starting to believe it. We all get points for dressing up throughout spirit week, granted more people participate in the football homecoming than basketball, but the seniors won every day. Every day they were first, this is odd because I went out to take pictures of people “dressed up” and I saw more sophomores and juniors dressed up more than the seniors almost every day. It really just doesn’t add up, but I guess it will be our turn one day…