On Friday, September 29, at 10:45 a.m., West Chicago Community High School hosted its annual Homecoming pep assembly at Memorial Stadium.
Those who were present included numerous freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, as well as staff. While Pep Club organized the event, they did so with the support of the cheerleaders, Dance Team, and football players.
“Pep Club is a way to engage the whole student body and connect with individuals, a way to bond with the whole school and community. Get everyone engaged with student activities and prepare for assemblies such as Homecoming, football games and themes. It’s a very fun time with everyone,” senior Sebastian Alvarez said.
The assembly commenced with a water balloon dodgeball game. In this dodgeball game, the juniors and sophomores were the first to participate. Juniors took the lead and emerged as winners in the initial round.
Alternating for the next game of water balloon dodgeball, the juniors took on the seniors. Loud screaming could be heard from the seniors as they hyped their team for encouragement; several times, however, the announced, Dave Jennings, had to ask if the juniors were present, as there was very little cheering from that section during the pep assembly.
The challenging twist about this energetic game is that competitors had to stay on their own side, with their team. Touching another individual with the water balloon could get them out of the game, and protect other teammates from getting hit and wet with a water balloon.
“Participating in the water balloon dodgeball was really fun and I would definitely do it again. Throwing the balloons was a lot harder than it looked and most of them would pop before we even threw it. I think next time they should have more balloons in the bucket so we don’t run out,” junior Zack Kreitzer said.
Despite an alleged lack of enthusiasm, in the second round, the juniors won once again.
“I feel great about the results, Robert W., Royal D., Sophia M., and I all got to take home the win for the juniors, and I think our crowd was great,” Kreitzer said.
After the entertainment, the cheerleaders were up next: they wore football player uniforms representing the colors of West Chicago Community High School, dark navy blue and white, and the numbers of the football players. The cheerleaders danced to “Just Want to Rock” by Lil Uzi Vert.
After the cheerleaders’ routine, the tug of war kicked off: this game pitted teachers/staff against students who signed up to go against the adults. A red flag was located in the middle of the rope; the team who successfully brought their red flag to the 40-yard line would be declared the winner.
Although they lost the event in 2022, the teachers won this year.
“I participated in tug-of-war as a favor to my former student and now colleague/sponsor of the pep club, Profe Mastroianni. She needed one more teacher to even out the sides. I’d love to say that the victory was all about believing in ourselves and our teammates, but it was really about having Joe Duszyinski, Matt Zuffante, Kevin Jarosz, and Jamie Garcia on the team. Those guys are STRONG! The students never really had a chance. We appreciated the love after the win. WeGo kids are always the sweetest,” World Languages teacher Beth Govertsen said via email.
The dance team then performed their routine to “Run the World (Girls)” by Beyonce and “We Found love” by Rihanna.
After the dance team, everyone attending the pep assembly listened to speeches from the different sports within the school, commencing with the football team captions. Each group attempted to inform the crowd about their sport, trying to attract others to come to the next match or game.
Before wrapping up the assembly, Pep Club offered up one last competition before announcing the Homecoming king and queen. The final game initially involved a slip and slide race between the freshmen and sophomores. The freshmen were initially successful and won the first round of slip and slide game when competing against the sophomores.
Up next were the juniors and seniors. Several observers on the senior side of the field noticed and commented on the fact that the juniors cheated by moving the hula hoop closer to them. A number of seniors were upset when the juniors were declared champions, as a result. They announced and claimed a re-match with only one individual from each team. In this rematch round, the seniors won.
Another slip and slide match-up between freshman (the youngest students in the building) and seniors (the oldest students in the building) followed. The seniors successfully took the win once again, which was not surprising, according to announcer Jennings.
After all the entertainment, and just before the termination of the assembly, Pep Club announced the Homecoming queen and king. This year’s queen was senior Karen Huerta Garnica.
“I am very thankful for all the individuals who voted for me to become queen for Homecoming of 2023. I am very excited about this wonderful experience,” Huerta Garnica said.
This year’s king was senior Qssam Alwan. Alwan and Huerta Garnica are dating in real life.
“This is such a magnificent experience to become king for the Homecoming of 2023. I am very enthusiastic and thankful for the voting,” Alwan said.
Once the Homecoming queen and king were named, students and staff were dismissed to go to Food Fest just beyond the stadium gates.
“[The pep assembly] went really well. I loved and enjoyed watching the slip and slide content of the students zooming across the field; it seemed like they got extremely wet. I was over in the seniors’ section, and in this case, I heard seniors cheering for their team,” science teacher Susanne Burchacki said.
Mr. Aiello • Oct 4, 2023 at 10:51 am
What a lopsided victory in tug-of-war. Really though the students would put up more of fight. Oh well, I guess there’s always next year…