At Yutan, students have always looked forward to the joy of homecoming Friday, with its afternoon of fun and games. Then, three years ago, this tradition was brought to a new level with the decision by student council and administration to play games all day with an early dismissal at one. With this being the third year of this tradition, the student council focused more on fine-tuning the day instead of adding new activities.
“The day ran more smoothly than the first year, and I feel like kids knew where they were supposed to be,” student council sponsor Alyssa Hansen said. “It flowed better, and I feel like everyone was on the same page.”
To start the day, students played rotational games run by a student council member. Two classes were in a group together, and students made banners in the cafeteria, played card games in the library, tag on the football field and kickball on the practice football field.
“My favorite part was just running tag because it was fun watching all of the grade levels go through and see how differently everybody acted,” sophomore Audrey Dieckman said.
Students then moved on to playing trivia on a Kahoot against other grade levels while waiting for the parade. Students had to answer different questions from a range of school subjects.
“Some of the questions were actually really difficult, but we could remember some of the stuff throughout our high school years,” senior Molly Besch said. “It was fun playing against other grade levels.”
After trivia, students walked to the elementary school to watch the parade, consisting of class floats, homecoming royalty, band and cheer. Junior Eli Kult rode their class float, which used the theme “Sink the Clippers” and featured a floatable pool of water with a student standing in it getting sprayed by a water gun.
“My favorite part of the parade was kind of just getting shot by the water guns and falling in the pool,” Kult said. “That was pretty fun.”
For the second year in a row, the eighth graders won the class floats. Their theme this year was “Cut the Clippers.”
“My favorite part was that you could see all the hard work we put into it,” eighth grader Ella Baulisch said. “I also liked hanging out with my friends after the float was done.”
When the parade ended, students headed to the practice field to watch or participate in the Chieftain Games, consisting of cupcake eating and water balloon toss. For cupcake eating, each grade had three different people try to eat the cupcakes as fast as they could to beat the other teams. The winners were freshman Jalen Gahan and sophomore TJ Ledden.
“I like the cupcake eating because the cupcakes were good even though it was all over my face,” Gahan said. “I was happy that I won because that was the first contest I’ve won here.”
During the water balloon toss, students partnered up to throw a water balloon and try not to break it. Some students were more successful than others and made it to the last few rounds, while others got out right away.
“My favorite part was completely missing Nolan Rupp and it landing on him,” freshman Logan Maloy said. “It was fun while it lasted.”
After the Chieftain Games, the junior and senior girls played powderpuff for 20 minutes. This is a game of football played by girls but with a few rules, such as no tackling. The senior girls ended up coming out with a win.
“I would say being able to block the juniors from scoring and them getting kind of mad about it was just kind of funny,” Besch said. “I had a lot of fun playing with friends for my last year.”
Since the juniors and seniors played powderpuff and buff, students in seventh through tenth grades played dodgeball against each other in the gym while the juniors and seniors were eating lunch. The eighth graders played the seventh graders and won. The sophomores played the freshmen and also won, but regardless of the outcome, dodgeball was fun for all.
“I liked playing dodgeball because it brought a lot of competitiveness back into my life,” freshman Hayleigh Darling said.
Once dodgeball was done, the junior and senior boys played a game of powderbuff volleyball. Just like in powderpuff, the seniors came out with a win.
“My favorite part of volleyball was just playing and just messing around on the court, just having fun as a group, being competitive,” Kult said.
The day of fun then ended with a pep rally. This year, the seniors and teachers played a game of pizza box knockoff. During the game, the seniors tried to knock each teacher’s pizza box from their hand. The teachers tried to do the same to the seniors.
“My favorite part of the pizza box challenge was when I sacrificed myself to get the Dan Krajicek out,” senior Jordyn Campbell said.
Another highlight of the pep rally was the homecoming dance performed by the cheerleaders.
“I really liked performing the homecoming dance for cheer at the pep rally,” Dieckman said. “It was fun to get all dressed up and see all of the high school at the pep rally.”
Overall, the day ended with memories that students will remember years later, all because of a new tradition that keeps getting better.
“I want to make sure that the focus remains on our students having the best day they can making memories that they are going to treasure for the rest of their lives,” Hansen said.
