Tigers celebrate Homecoming

EPHRATA — Throughout Homecoming Week, assemblies were hosted each morning in the main gym of the Ephrata High School campus for staff members and students to choose the best-dressed students from each grade. The week culminated with the crowning of the ultimate class champion who will reign supreme for Homecoming. 

Kicking off Homecoming Week is Color Day. This is the time when the colors of each grade are worn. Freshmen wore white, sophomores green, juniors purple and seniors sported pink. On Monday morning, representatives from each grade were called down onto the gym floor to compete in an air mattress race. One of the juniors, Michael Park, won for the junior class during the showdown. 

“It is great being picked for the outfit I worked hard on getting. Even though I hit my head on the wall part-way through the races we took the dub and brought the junior class to victory,” Park said. 

On Tuesday, Oct. 1, most students dressed up as if they were away on a tropical vacation. Their outfits ranged from simple Hawaiian shirts and sunhat to floaties worn throughout the halls. This day’s event was split into two competitions: The Balloon Heel Pop Challenge and the Ping-Pong Shake Challenge. Sophomore Hannah Malone and others engaged in the balloon event. This challenge had representatives from each grade tie one balloon to each ankle and run around trying to pop the other grade levels. This ended with a victory for the seniors. For the ping pong contest, the rest of the chosen students were given a tissue box to tie at their hips and had to shake ping pong balls out of the box. This time, the freshmen took home the point. 

“Even though we all knew the seniors were going to win, I think we all had lots of fun running around,” Malone said. 

Dress Your Age Day was when the students would dress as the age their grade was assigned. Freshmen were infants, sophomores pre-teens or toddlers, juniors adults, and seniors were — well — seniors. Wednesday’s competition was the Hula Hoop Hop where two grades would hop from hoop to hoop and play rock-paper-scissors when they met. The goal was to get to the other side by beating each opponent encountered. Before this commenced, costumes from each grade were chosen as the best and placed from there. One of these students was Montgomery Muir, who succeeded in claiming the win in the costume voting for the seniors.  

Muir said he had a strategy for the day. 

“For Dress Your Age Day, I knew I had to do something big, so I did the one thing I knew not everyone would have available to them. I brought a wheelchair to school with a pee bag and air horn strapped to it ... I used my air horn to honk at people in the hallways when I needed to get by,” he said.  

Thursday's theme was Dynamic Duos. Costumes ranged from classic cartoon characters to ideas based on common phrases. Competition-wise, it was a Hungry Hungry Hippos battle day. Freshman Brylee Buchanan was one of the lucky individuals who was pulled down to compete during the day’s assembly. The rules of the challenge were that one-half of each duo would lie down on a scooter while the other pushed them through a pile of balls. The objective was to get as many balls as you could into a basket. All students fought hard, and in the end, the seniors took home the victory. 

Due to weather conditions, the week's final assembly was moved indoors. The last gathering revealed the results of the class competition and the 2024 homecoming royalty. One of the homecoming week's biggest supporters, David Tempel, a social studies teacher at Ephrata High School, thoroughly enjoyed watching every class come together as one over the week. The day went like all the others with an assembly, just at the end of the school day. To finalize the results of the events that happened over the week, the class Olympics was held. This included tug-of-war and musical chairs. In the end, the seniors were the ones to take the victory after one of their own won in musical chairs even with a pile of bodies being piled up on the floor after things got too heated.  

“Homecoming week is one of my favorite weeks of the year. It's a week full of spirit, school pride, and a common focus for the students and faculty. From dress-up days to class competitions to the football game on Friday, Homecoming Week is a time for the students and classes to come together as one EHS,” said Tempel. 

Regan Shannon is a student at Ephrata High School interested in learning about journalism. 

    Ephrata High seniors go all-pink for Color Day during this year's Tiger homecoming week celebration.
  

    Tuesday's clothing theme was a tropical getaway experience that students leaned into.
  

    The seniors were "senior citizens" for Dress Your Age Day at Ephrata High School.