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The Student News Site of McCallum High School

The Shield Online
The Student News Site of McCallum High School

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From spirit days to dance nights, homecoming brings high spirits

Knights culminate a festive spirit week with pep rally, crowned royalty and a disco-themed dance
Shila Gill, August Gleason, Hudson Hensley, Chloe Lewcock, V Overstreet, Arwen Pelletier, Maya Tackett, Priya Thoppil, Nate Williams, Zev Zent, and Callen Romell
October 29, 2024
Julia Copas
HIGH KICKS, HIGH SPIRITS: On Friday, Oct. 18, McCallum culminated a festive spirit week with the homecoming pep rally. During the pep rally, the class winner of the hallway decorating contest was announced as well as the usual spirit stick award. Sophomore and Blue Brigade member, Peyton Robenhorst noted how festive the student section was. “It felt good to perform for the homecoming game,” Robenhorst said. “I knew a lot of people were going to [cheer for us].”

Oct. 14-18 marked homecoming week at McCallum, featuring numerous activities that students have come to expect: hallway decoration, spirit days and the pep rally featured heavily among the traditional festivities. Of course, the week wouldn’t be complete without the homecoming dance, which made its triumphant return last year following its brief cancellation during the pandemic. 

This year’s homecoming spirit days featured a wide variety of themes: “Western vs. West Coast” on Tuesday, “USA Day” on Wednesday, the return of “Color Wars” between the classes on Thursday, capped off by Friday’s “Disco” motif continued the school tradition in ways old and new. 

Oct. 18’s pep rally concluded the week with a bang, including the expected band performance along with several competitions, foremost of all being the spirit competition between the grades. Assistant Principal Dr. Parrott, with Principal Andy Baxa standying beside him, declared the sophomores the most spirited competitors at the rally, but all wasn’t lost for the seniors. Coach Brodbeck announced at the pep rally that the class of ‘25 would take home the trophy in the hallway decorating contest. 

During halftime at the game later that night, the freshman, sophomore and junior homecoming royalty would all walk the field, along with the final nominees for king and queen. Seniors Trinity Ritcherson and King Henry would ultimately be crowned the winners. The Blue Brigade performed at halftime of the game, while the band played before the game even started. 

The final and arguably most anticipated of all homecoming events, however, that of course being the dance, wouldn’t arrive until this past Saturday. Hosted in the Red Oak Ballroom under the theme “Saturday Knight Lights,” several hundred Knights would gather for a night of celebration and high spirits.

Until next year, we are proud to present this year’s homecoming as this week’s Tuesday Top 10.

homecoming court
Julia Copas
A QUEEN COMING HOME: Senior Trinity Ritcherson is shocked at her homecoming queen win. After walking down the football field waiting for the results to be announced for the homecoming court, Ritcherson made her peace expecting a loss. She, however, just moments later was crowned queen, a moment she would remember about senior year forever. “I didn’t think anyone would have voted for me,” Ritcherson said. “[But] it was pretty exciting and when they called my name I even started jumping up and down.” Ritcherson noted the win was something that made her senior year more sentimental. “What really surprised me was how many people congratulated me afterwards,” Ritcherson said. “It made a lot of good memories that I’ll be able to look back on.” According to Ritcherson, senior year was the chance to get involved with the various events around school, and running for homecoming court was one of those unique opportunities. “[The homecoming king and queen] are really involved with either the school or student life,” Ritcherson said. “My favorite part [of running] was making fun posters with my friends and taking the chance running for queen.” Caption by Chloe Lewcock.
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AN ABUNDANCE OF OPPORTUNITIES: Senior Harper Freach, a cello player in the chamber orchestra, plays the first movement of “Triptyque” by Yasushi Akutagawa, which they began practicing in August. Freach said she was nervous going into the concert, having recently focused on other pieces. “I was feeling pretty nervous because we hadn't played it for a while because we had been focused on pieces for another concert, so everyone was a little rusty,” Freach said. After the performances, the fine arts majors separated into smaller groups so that the audience could interact with whatever fine arts they were most interested in learning about. Freach’s younger sister is interested in the dance department, so they went into that group. “We went to the dance building and got to watch a bunch of different types of solos of all different dance types to show what you could audition with for your audition and got to talk to the dance teachers,” Freach said. Freach said she had a very different experience with orchestra before high school. “I went to a private school, and we had a very different way of playing, we would have to audition for actual seatings and chairs,” Freach said. “It's different because now you walk into orchestra, and you don't know what to expect. Pringle will either have you play for the class or play with a different section; it's just a very broad range, and you never know what you're going to get. I like it because it tests my abilities and tells me what I need to work on and sometimes shows that I can pick up on things faster than I thought I would be able to.” Freach’s advice for any new Knights is to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible. “Any opportunity that you are presented with you should take it,” Freach said. “I couldn't do that my freshman year because we were still pretty shut down due to COVID. I was scared to try other things besides orchestra, but I regret not involving myself in other areas at McCallum where I could have possibly found my passion.” Caption by Shila Gill.
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AS EASY AS PB&J: At the blindfold sandwich-making station, senior Zane Wiggins and Kai Talebi attempt to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The activity allowed students to experience the mundane task without sight. Wiggins found that the simple activity turned into a challenge in almost every aspect of the process. "It was pretty rough," he said. "My bread wasn’t put together properly, and I put my jelly right next to my plate and not on the plate, it was really difficult. I was expecting it to be easier than it was cause I'd made sandwiches all my life, and I thought 'I can do this from muscle memory,' but it was a lot harder than I thought, and it makes you not take your sight for granted. Access to your sight makes things so much easier." Since students participating are used to having full sight, it was difficult to adapt to the sudden loss of a sense. "I had to kind of guess where things were and the plate was moving a lot," he said. "Every time I would reach for the plate it would be in a different location, so I kind of had to feel around for everything." Along with that, Wiggins had to work together with Talebi to communicate to communicate which ingredient he needed next. "I had to share the peanut butter and the jelly with Kai, so we had to coordinate with each other on who gets what first," he said. "I knew Kai was right next to me, but it was hard to know where her hands were. We had to find each other's arm and make our way up to pass the ingredients." Caption by Lillian Gray.
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