This week marks the Penns Valley homecoming of 2022. Many activities celebrating homecoming will happen this week. Every day will have its own special Spirit Day outfit. Students participating will earn RAMs points for each day. Doors around the school will also be decorated with this year’s homecoming theme, “Game Night”. So, expect many game-related doors! On Thursday, October 13th, there will be a homecoming parade at the Grange Fairgrounds at 6:30 pm. This is followed by the homecoming game on Friday, October 14th, which will be against the Golden Eagles of Tyrone. The week ends on Saturday, October 15th, with the homecoming dance from 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm in the old large gym. For an official article on homecoming, please see this link.

Now, that is a lot of celebrating! It is always exciting to see all of these events occur every year. There is one more thing that has not been mentioned, however, and that thing is the homecoming court. The homecoming court is a lineup of nominated students who compete to be homecoming queen through many different activities. Penns Valley has had a homecoming court for many years, but this year is a little different. This year marks the first time that Penns Valley has males in the homecoming court. That’s right! Not only are there five female students competing for the title of homecoming queen, but there are also five male students competing for the title of homecoming king. 

The people on the homecoming court are as follows: Ann-Marie McMurtrie, Sarah Breon, Paige Dobson, Hannah Clark, Ellie Coursen, David Martin, Logan Conrad, Micah Good, Hayden Houser, and Isaac Braucht. Isaac Braucht has been asked to give his thoughts on being on the homecoming court.

“I was mainly just surprised and also felt thankful that somebody went out of their way to nominate me,” he explains. “I was a little stressed for a hot second, but it’s okay because I figured, as long I give some effort into everything and show up, it’ll be fine. I’m mainly just happy and thankful that I was put on in the first place and I’m excited to see who gets it.”

The stress Mr. Braucht is referring to is all the different activities that the homecoming court has to fulfill before the dance. This includes decorating a door, participating in a surprise interview, dressing up to get a picture for each day of Spirit Week, and going to the parade and football game. Mr. Braucht was also afraid of not being able to attend the dance.

“That was another thing that first crossed my mind: can I do it? Because there was the whole thing going on where [the band show] was overlapping with the dance. But, luckily, the band figured it out.”

When asked about what he would change about homecoming, Isaac responded with, “I think I would change how limited activities are… Not a lot of [activities] truly involve a ton of people and I think we can have something cooler. Perhaps set up a little corner for community members to gather, not just alumni and students. Though, I guess alumni is the point.”

‘Homecoming’ means something different to everyone. To some people, the dance is the main attraction. To others, homecoming is about the parade. For Mr. Braucht, the occasion means something a little more. 

“Homecoming is a time for everyone—alumni and such—and other people to just come and gather at a particular place. The football game is usually what I think of—all these older people coming back to experience things with the students of today.”