Welcome back to the 2023-2024 school season. We are back to homecoming season Mustangs! This year’s homecoming theme had been decided to be, drum roll, please… Western Themed. Mr. Dustin Heap, our former Dean of Students is now Assistant Principal of Student Services and one of the main organizers for Homecoming activities. “I was a Dean for the last two years, and then I moved over to the activities overall, so this will be my first year organizing Homecoming.”

When thinking about the overall process of planning such an event, Heap said “The new job has been great; it’s going really well and I’m excited about all of it.” Another component of the Homecoming festivities was selecting the students for the Homecoming Court. Mr. Heap explained how the Homecoming King and Queen winners would be called out the night of the football game and how the students would be recognized during the pep rally. This year’s nominations opened on September 12th and candidates were nominated by a peer or a classmate on an online form. This year there was a total of 79 candidates for all four grade levels; 7 freshmen, 56 sophomores, 3 juniors, and 16 seniors. Each candidate participated in an interview,  and students were allowed to vote for their favorite candidate.  “Being nominated to the court means so much for me because, not only do I value the academic aspect of high school, but also value the social aspect,” expressed Anna Pachla, one of the sophomores’ representing the class of 2026 homecoming court.

Voting took place from September 27^th through the 29^th during the lunch periods on tablets. Voting was closed and though the results were in, students did not find out who the winners were. During the day of the pep rally,  the winners were called out for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors Princes and Princesses. The senior class winners were left to be announced during the halftime show of the Varsity football game on Friday night. After the pep rally, the top three senior candidates of the homecoming court, received a text message letting them know that they were one of the candidates with the most votes from their class level. Later that day, the Homecoming winners for Senior King and Queen were announced in front of the whole crowd, Marcelo Oliveros was Homecoming King and Revecca Tirado was Homecoming Queen.

“I was super excited and really like emotional,” said Revecca Tirado. Both Oliveros and Tirado received their crowns after the announcement. What advice if Tirado have for next year’s candidates, she said “Honestly, advocate for yourself and be as nice as possible.”