The Mycenaean

Students all over Leesville are beginning to prepare for Homecoming Festivities that are to take place the weekend of October 16.

With spirit week, parades, pep rallies and the homecoming game, Homecoming is an exciting time for the Leesville Pride to showcase their school spirit and truly act like loonies.  It’s a time at the beginning of the year for students to make friends, cheer on their home team, and have an all around good time.

Sam Kelman, a junior comments, “The homecoming game is a great time to watch our football team, and hang out with friends. Its gonna be awesome!”

The pep rally will be held Friday, October 16 during school hours in order to pump the students with spirit for the Homecoming game that night.  The homecoming game starts at 7:00 p.m. against Sanderson High. “Can’t wait to watch the Pride whoop Sanderson!” said Kelman.

Many different aspects go into the homecoming events and many people spend long hours preparing to make the homecoming events a success.

One thing is for sure, the homecoming game is anticipated by all of the Loonies, and the game could not happen without our dedicated football players.

“We’ve been practicing hard for a while, and homecoming is an important time to show what we’ve practiced, since all of our friends will be there watching us,” said Austin Berrios, a sophomore varsity football player.  “It would really suck to let everyone down on homecoming, so we have to win. Plus, if we lose, the mood at the dance is just gonna be bad.”

To help our football players prepare and get excited for the big game, members of the PTA, or “Football Moms” help.

“We decorate the Multipurpose Room and have a special meal for the football players. We also make a cake with a team picture on it in celebration of homecoming,” said Lynn Woodrow, mother of a sophomore varsity player, Jake Woodrow.

While the football players train and prepare to show the crowd what they have practiced, the cheerleaders are preparing to show the pride a routine of their own.

“I’m looking forward to homecoming because we are going to have the opportunity to perform our competition routine at the pep rally to help raise the crowd’s energy,” said Elena Bravo-Taylor, a varsity cheerleader.

Along with the pep rally, the cheerleaders will also be making a special performance at the game, where they will stand on the sidelines to flip and spin to lead Leesville in spirit every time the team scores.

Also performing at the pep rally will be the Pride Dance Ensemble.  Sarah Morrison, a senior on the ensemble, said, “The pep rally dance is going to be really good.  The whole ensemble worked together to choreograph it, so it was really a group effort this year.”

Although the cheerleaders lead the crowd in cheers, there is a group of students who never fail to cheer the loudest: The Grill Team.  The school’s tailgating/cheering fanatics plan to be grilling out at Springdale Park at 4:30 the day of the game.

Stuck between two exciting halves of football, the homecoming halftime show will take place.  The band has worked hard all year to prepare a routine for the band competition, and the routine they have prepared is to be performed at the Homecoming halftime show.

“I’m excited to perform, but it’s going to be tough, because we have the same amount of time to perform that we usually do, with three times the amount of stuff, so we have to learn to march really fast,” said Jessi Van Staalduinen, a junior who marches in the band.

Many students are planning on attending the game and even Leesville’s newest students, the freshmen, are excited about the homecoming festivities. “Homecoming is going to be frickin’ awesome because the class of 13 is now here!” said Maggie Zargo, freshman.

With the hard work of the all involved, Homecoming will live up to all the great expectations.