Senior ASB officers at the Homecoming kick-off event: door decorating.
After eighteen months of public health restrictions preventing almost all large-scale social events, CHS Homecoming Week is back in 2021 with festivities that began on Sunday, September 26 and run through Saturday evening, Oct. 2.
Homecoming week is traditionally held at the beginning of the school year as a means of bringing the student body together and, just as much, as a means of welcoming alumni back to campus and to the Kodiak community. “Second only to the first day of school this year when we welcomed one and all back to campus for the first time, homecoming week has been the most exciting time for me,” said CHS Principal Elia Ala'ilima-Daley. That sentiment was reflected by Rudy Joya, Assistant Principal and ASB Advisor: “I love our students and I’ve really enjoyed being around them this year with all the excitement surrounding the return to activities, like sports and clubs. This week, in particular, has been so much fun for me watching these kids get back to it and having fun together in school spirit. It’s a renewal and it’s healthy.”
The release of pent-up enthusiasm for this year's homecoming week is not surprising, given that the 2020 homecoming week, together with myriad of other social and sporting events over the last year-and-a-half, were scrapped. Daley reported what he believed to be “record participation” so far in this year’s activities. Indicative of Principal Daley’s observation was CHS Junior Tillie Leroy who commented that she was “thrilled to have homecoming week back” and is “looking forward to getting to know some of the underclassmen at the events this week since I really haven’t been in school with them.” Freshman Napiqua Gibbs echoed that feeling saying that she is “excited to have group actives return, especially homecoming week.”
While the senior ASB leadership team has been engaged diligently for weeks in the planning work for homecoming, they gathered all the ASB troops and a few other student volunteers last Sunday afternoon in the CHS Commons to kick off the week by decorating the school’s entrance doors. Senior Class ASB Advisor and mathematics teacher, Bill Davies, in addition to being happy to see the kids working away together in school on a Sunday, remarked that he was “truly impressed by the hard work and enthusiasm this year’s senior class is bringing to homecoming.” Sophomore and Freshman Class ASB Advisors, and Language Arts teachers, Roselyn Robison and Lea Boggs, respectively, agreed with Davies. Robison commented that “this group is self-motivated and amazingly self-sufficient.” Boggs, in her first year at CHS after a long stint at IRMS, commented that homecoming prep has been “way more fun than I thought” and that it was “so nice to see the freshman,” whom she knew as eighth graders, “really getting into it!”
Monday saw the beginning of daily homecoming themes, sports events and activities (e.g., pajama day, fall sports against rival Cashmere and upperclassmen coed games). Wednesday evening the celebrations continued with PowderPuff football and volleyball games. The seniors were victorious on the football field, but the juniors redeemed themselves at the volleyball match. “I loved watching my brother [senior Colton Latimer], because he fell on the ground a lot and what he was wearing was really funny,” said sophomore Coy Latimer. The school week culminates on Friday with “Kodiak Krazy” day, for which everyone in the CHS community is encouraged to wear their Kodiak attire or colors. There is an assembly featuring class skits, cheers and the coronation of homecoming “royalty,” and the football game versus Chelan, at which fans are encouraged to “white out” the stands by dressing in their white Kodiak regalia. Of note is that with the return of homecoming football is the accompanying fireworks at the field. Homecoming week itself then comes to a celebratory end on Saturday with the cross-country team’s Ski Hill Invite (at which more schools will travel to take on CHS than at any other sport or event during the year) and another central event around which homecoming is built, the Homecoming Dance.
The dance this year will have some novelty to it, as it will be outside and require masks. However, aside from that, it will go on as it has traditionally. The Homecoming King and Queen are Chase Runions and Madi Gillespie. Gillespie noted that she was “super excited to be homecoming royalty” and Runions added that he felt it has been “a cool time for the school, as a whole, to come together.” Making up the Homecoming Court are the various class Prince and Princesses: seniors Jose Reyes and Rosario Fernandez Santiago; juniors Gavin Pulse and Emily Reyes Torres; sophomores Scott Lindsay and Lucy Thomas; freshman Hunter Lang and Maisy Groff.
Appreciation for renewed traditions, seeing each other through refreshed lenses and celebrating community anew seem to be the unspoken motifs underlying and supporting the expressed themes this year. As palpable excitement builds during this highly anticipated and special week, Principal Daley sends out “kudos to ASB members and the senior class” for “helping to get everyone excited to be back on campus together.”
For a detailed list of homecoming events, including locations and times, please visit https://www.cascadesd.org/domain/489 and click the “Daily Bulletin” link. After homecoming concludes, come back here and let us know, in the comments, which activity or event was your favorite of the week.
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