From Monday, Sept. 22 through Saturday, Sept. 27, Hays High School had its annual Homecoming event. This year, the week was themed, “Down the Rabbit Hole,” with many events, including Spirit Days, candidate games, class games, candidate crowning and the class participation contest.
Spirit Week started on Monday, Sept. 22 with BBQ Dads vs. Soccer Moms Day, and Tuesday, Sept. 23 was Tacky Tourist Day. During Advisory on Tuesday, StuCo hosted the candidate games in the gym. King candidates were seniors Seth Burkholder, Izaac Fox, Trey Oakley, Jonathan Rigler and Conner Werth. Queen candidates were seniors Molly Buckles, Johanna Jones, Keeley Lowry, Chloe Rice and Erin Ruder. Jones won musical chairs. They also had class games during the assembly, where the seniors won the tug-of-war, and the sophomores won the balloon relay.
Wednesday, Sept. 24 was 1970s Day, and Thursday was Class Colors Day. On Thursday evening, class games were held on the football field. The classes participated against each other in a set of games. The games included donut eating, table surfing, cartwheel relay, leapfrog, hula hoop skip, hula hoop circle, dizzy bats and base running relay.
“My favorite Spirit Day this week would have to be Class Color Day, but that is mainly because I went all out this year,” Ruder said.
Friday, Sept. 26 was Formal Dress-up Day. At 12:15 p.m., StuCo hosted the formal candidate assembly in the Performing Arts Center, and at 5 p.m., the Homecoming parade took place on Main Street. The parade included the class floats, the marching band, alumni floats and more.
“My favorite part of Homecoming week was the float building and how much pressure there was to finish it in time,” sophomore Madilyn Wilkins said.
On Friday evening, the football team played Garden City. At halftime, the Homecoming king and queen were crowned. Rigler was crowned king, and Buckles was named queen. Hays High went on to win the game with a score of 48-20.
Throughout the duration of Homecoming week, a class participation contest was going on, with the prize being that the winning class got to leave school five minutes early every day the following week. Points were determined based on float design and participation, Spirit Day participation and class games. The senior class won the competition.
“My favorite part of Homecoming week was seeing people have the spirit of Hays High School and seeing everyone just genuinely having a great time,” Werth said.
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