By Brayden Dirks
For the Royals, the week of September 13th to September 17th was Homecoming Week. Each year there is a theme for the week, and this year was “Disney.” Along with that, each day has an assigned dress up day that high school students can participate in for class points. The week kicked off on Sunday with the high schoolers decorating the hallway their class was assigned to. The hallway decorations are important because they contribute to the score of each class at the end of the week. The freshmen decorated their hallway based on the movie Cars, and the sophomores decorated their hallway based on the Disney movie Monsters, Inc. Juniors’ theme was the movie The Little Mermaid, and the seniors’ theme was Toy Story.
Monday was a very busy day as it had coronation and a dress up day. The dress up day was Monsters University Wear Your Favorite College Gear. There were many different schools represented on Monday. Monday night was coronation day which meant that each class would perform their lip sync, and the homecoming king and queen would be announced. The lip sync is also a part of the score for each class, as each class receives a place of 1-4. To start off the coronation, the homecoming court was introduced. The queen candidates were Ellie Hilbrands, Mya Holmes, Ellie Reuter, Asya Miller, and Kirsten Letsche. The homecoming king candidates were Carson Pick, Colin Pick, Preston Astidias, Brett Staab, and Gunnar Grage. After the lip sync from each class, each sport had a chance to talk a little bit about the season. Coach Kyle Oswald encouraged people to come support at the homecoming football game. To cap off the night, the reveal of the homecoming king and queen was announced. Brett Staab was crowned king and classmate Ellie Hilbrands was named queen.
Tuesday meant the return of a dress up day and this was Disney day. High schoolers were told to dress up as their favorite Disney character. There were many different creative outfits including Toy Story characters, Robin Hood, and the seven dwarfs from Snow White. Wednesday was class color day in which each class dressed up in the color of their class shirt. Freshmen had red, sophomores had lime green, juniors wore white, and seniors wore black. On Wednesday afternoon, the first homecoming activity took place which was PowderPuff football. The high school girls play football and each class faces off for the highest points. The first game was between the freshmen and seniors, and the seniors advanced. The juniors and sophomores then faced off, and the juniors won. In the championship game, the seniors won for their fourth year against the juniors. Also on Tuesday, there was a home volleyball game in Marcus against Harris Lake-Park and the Royal girls won that match three sets to none.
On Thursday, the activities continued with PowderBuff volleyball in the afternoon and Hawaiian day as the dress up day to emulate Disney’s Moana. PowderBuff volleyball is an activity where the boys play volleyball, and it also counts towards each class’s final score for the week. The sophomore boys beat the senior boys in the championship game to win PowerBuff. The Royals volleyball team had another game on Thursday night in Remsen against West Sioux, in which they won three sets to none.
Friday capped off homecoming activities, but it was definitely the busiest day. The high school students started off their day in the gym playing class olympics, with games like volleyball, dodgeball, and tug-of-war. After activities, each class decorated their float that was to be used for the homecoming parade. The float, along with hallway, lip sync, PowderBuff, and PowderPuff, was one of the factors in the final score for each class. At 1:30, the parade started, which went through the streets of Marcus. Each class had their own float along with one float each for cross country, volleyball, and football. Many people came out to watch the parade, and, of course, lots of candy was thrown. Students, staff, and members of the community then filtered into the grandstands at the football field for the annual homecoming pep rally. Coach Kyle Oswald spoke a few words about the game and encouraged everyone at the pep rally to come to the game. Afterwards, the senior volleyball, football, and cross country players played a game; and then the cheerleaders performed the school song. Students were dismissed and all that was left now was the football game.
The events for the football game started off with the homecoming court being introduced to the crowd. After that, the cross country (XC) team ran the game football out to the main referee. After school, the XC team ran the ball all the way from Remsen to the high school in Marcus, which is a homecoming tradition. Once the pregame festivities had ended, the game between the Royals and the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Hawks had started. At halftime, the Hawks led 46-0. At this moment, the Royals Dance Squad performed a pom-pom routine to a medley of 1970s music which the crowd enjoyed. The final score of the 2021 homecoming game was 66-14, with the Royals moving to 0-4 on the year.