We are ending the fun-filled Homecoming week with the theme Rainbow Road, where each grade wears their class color! Freshmen are green, sophomores are yellow, juniors are orange, and seniors are pink! Today is also the day for the fall sports and Homecoming assembly! This year, the assembly took place on the Mountain Ridge football field due to the substantial number of freshmen.. There were some mixed feelings about this arrangement because of the rainy weather earlier in the week, but it ended up being a lovely day, with the temperatures being in the low 60s and very sunny (at least for the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors).
The class colors theme tends to be the most popular day of spirit week because we have the assembly the same day, and it ties into the football game later in the day. Students love to express themselves, and class colors can distinguish them from other grades. Some students go all out with their color, while others simply wear a simple t-shirt in their chosen color. No matter what they do, they are participating and engaging with the spirit week and showing their school spirit. Some schools simply do their school colors, where it doesn’t separate the classes and make them all look the same. With colors representing grades, students can wear fluorescent colors, pastels, or just regular colors, not only plain school colors. It makes the theme more individualized and sets the stage for who sits where during the assembly!
The assembly kicked off with some great songs, like Mr Brightside by the Killers and Die Trying by PARTYNEXTDOOR, Drake, and Yebba, while everyone was filing into the bleachers. This year, juniors were hoping to see the performances from the front, but those hopes were crushed when freshmen, sophomores, and juniors were put all on the home side of the football team, while seniors were on the opposing side where the performances were taking place. Since it was freshman Liam Kantaras’ first assembly, he exclaimed that the assembly was, “a very cool experience and there was so much school spirit!”
The goal for the first assembly is to reel in the freshmen and keep all the other classes engaged while everyone performs. It opens with our honor choir singing the national anthem. The first act of the assembly then followed which was a wig snatching competition. The senior and freshman participants were both snatched by the junior. The face-off between the sophomore and junior was pretty intense. Both attacks by the junior failed and ended with the sophomore winning! Then the assembly went on to all the cheer and pom performances, which were a great mix of music and talent. Violet Landry, a senior on varsity cheer, loves performing during the assembly. Her favorite part was that “this was my last Homecoming assembly performing with my best friends. We were able to see our vision come true with the dance that we seniors choreographed.” At the end of their performance, they did a special senior huddle, which Violet says meant so much to them.
After seeing the homecoming assembly, sophomore Chase Ervin said that the assembly was super, “well put together, and I loved watching the fun games they do and all the fun dance moves that Cheer and Pom do.” As he is getting ready for the dance, he is looking forward “to the dance and so excited to hang out with my friends. Last year was so much fun, and I hope this year will be the same.”
Then it went on to our fall sport competition versus teachers/coaches who volunteered to play dodgeball against these athletes. At first, athletes were doing pretty good, but ended up losing all their players besides one varsity football player who was fighting against a 1v4 and ended up losing, giving the teachers the win!
As we went into the band performance, we asked junior Nandana Warrier about her experience with the assembly. She had very high expectations for the assembly due to all the other assemblies being so fun, and it proved to be better than she expected. “It was very hype, and it definitely met my expectations for the homecoming assembly!”
As the assembly comes to an end and students realize this is the last day of spirit week, it brings to light the excitement of knowing that homecoming is tomorrow. We ended strong with our spirit scream and Mountain Ridge fight song! The spirit scream was won by the seniors, but the juniors were in a very close second, granting the seniors the award of the spirit stick. We ended with our famous fight song performed by the band, sung by the students around. Now, on to Mountain Ridge High School’s City of Stars Homecoming!
