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Halle Arlt

Freshman Nathan Daniell aims and fires at his opponent. The freshman class won the 7-9 grade division of the dodgeball tournament. “Dodgeball was the best part of the day, and it was also my favorite game we played all day,” said Daniell.

For most students, the Friday of homecoming week is one of the most exciting days of the school year, with a shortened class schedule and an afternoon full of activities. This year, however, because Homecoming Friday landed on a previously scheduled 1:00 dismissal, the administration and Student Council took the opportunity to change the schedule. Instead of attending classes, students did homecoming activities all day, including water balloon toss, cupcake eating contest, class trivia and dodgeball.

Student Council sponsor Alyssa Hansen was put in charge of creating the new schedule, with help from Student Council members and ideas from Yutan’s new principal, Stefanie Novotny.

“The major reason [for the change] was the 1:00 p.m. dismissal,” Hansen said. “If we would have had classes, they would have been super short, or we would have only had some of them, so Ms. Novotny came up with the idea of like, let’s just do homecoming stuff all day.”

Student Council members helped decide what the final schedule would be, including which activities were planned.

“We met with the Student Council representatives and talked about what is the most important thing to you? What can we absolutely not give up? What things are we okay with if we can’t fit in?” Hansen said.

Student Council members, like junior representative Loganne Barta, were happy to take on a more prominent role in the decision-making process of the Friday schedule. 

“I like being a part of the process because it more reflects on our student body compared to what the teachers choose for us,” Barta said.

The day started with a shortened first period for lunch count before students were sent to the gym for dodgeball, where each grade played both the grade above and below them. This activity proved to be a favorite for many students, like junior Tyler Witt.

“[Dodgeball] allows everyone to participate, making it a good addition to Homecoming. I would love to do it again next year,” Witt said.

Students then reported to their AP classrooms for class trivia with the parade to follow. The parade followed a new route this year, starting downtown and ending at the high school, but still included the band, cheerleaders, royalty and class floats. The new parade route wasn’t favored by many of the students, including junior Max Egr.

“I wasn’t a big fan of the changed parade route because there was nowhere to sit, so that made me pretty upset,” Egr said, “I would change it next year if I could.”

After the parade, students returned to their AP classrooms before heading back to the gym, where seniors and staff participated in a staff versus student relay race. Students were then split by their lunch periods to go outside for Chieftain Games before the day concluded with a pep rally. The Chieftain Games were split by lunch periods, which was a new change this year, but didn’t really affect some students, like senior Colton Kirchmann.

“I didn’t really care that the Chieftain Games were split up by grade levels this year, but I liked that it was still included on Friday because I feel like that’s something we always do,” Kirchmann said. “I feel like people were a lot more involved this year with dodgeball and cornhole and the rest of the Chieftain Games, which is always good.”

Through all the changes, Hansen had one major goal that she feels was accomplished.

“At the end of the day, we want to make sure that it’s fun for kids and that they have a good time,” Hansen said. “I feel like kids did have fun and participated, and everyone had the opportunity to participate throughout the week.”