Sweet Home Chicago homecoming — a week jam-packed with school spirit, excitement, and friends.
The main event that students looked forward to all week was the Homecoming dance. This year, the dance was held on Saturday, Oct. 3 According to the Student Council Executive Board, more than 1,300 kids filled the electric gym. Following the theme of Chicago, the halls were decorated with Chicago memorabilia such as home team sports logos, the Bean, and representations of the skyline.
“This was probably the most fun dance of all four years, and I think being a senior made it even more memorable,” said senior Jordan Bach.
At the dance, there were a number of students who were frustrated with the DJ because many of them placed song requests before the dance and they felt that these requests went unnoticed.
¨There was a lot of hype because for the first time, students were able go online and request songs, so it was very frustrating when these requests were ignored,” said senior Emily Dudley.
However, the students didn’t let this take away from their night.
“I think we have a great student body to just get out there and get down,” said senior Cam Hays.
The festivities began on Friday, Oct. 2 at the annual Homecoming assembly. A loud rally of students filled the air as the assembly began. From Spencer Chartier’s honor court escort to a surprise Homecoming ask, this assembly was filled with excitement.
As always, the bleachers were divided into the four classes. Each grade battled for the Wildcat Cup, seeing who had the most school spirit. Seniors won this round.
Two weeks prior to the assembly, the senior class elected the Sweet Sixteen, who are the 16 girls elected to be in the running for Homecoming Queen. The students were able to watch videos that each girl created as they were escorted into the gym by the senior boy Honor Court members. The videos gave students the opportunity to get to know the girls a little better before casting their vote via text.
The assembly also included performances by the varsity dance team, the guy poms, a varsity and junior varsity cheer routine, and the staff gradebook brigade dancers. Awards were also given out for the best homecoming asks and the best windows in downtown Libertyville for window painting, including first- place windows by Link Crew and JV poms.
At the end of the assembly, the votes were totaled and the homecoming queen, Danielle Pacholski, was crowned by the 1999 queen, Sarah Potempa.
“I think Danielle was very surprised so it was fun to see her reaction and her excitement,” said senior Kara Black, who was also on the Sweet Sixteen.
Throughout the week, students also participated in spirit days. The days included Chicago sport fan day, Chicago Marathon day, North Avenue Beach day, Wildcat Spirit Day and Class Color Wars. Students were active in participating in each day, wearing necklaces, paint, costumes, and more.
Following Friday’s assembly, many students headed to the Homecoming football game. As the varsity football team went head to head with Lake Zurich High School, the student section was tightly packed, continuing the tradition of a white-out theme Homecoming game. With a final score of 41-21, Libertyville remained undefeated, at 6-0.
