By: Madeline Alvarez and Rozlyn Williams
Last week, on September 29th, El Diamante held their homecoming game against Redwood at Groppetti Community Stadium. Not only was this an important game for the football team, but it was an important game for all the nominees who were a part of the homecoming court.
The queen nominees were: Jorja Moreno, Kneiamya Espindola, Macie Kenison, Aislinn Weisner, and Reagan Cooper. The king nominees were Pedro Campos-Reyes, Zachary Moreno, Chance Ybarra, Jayden Lopez, and Caleb Silva. The theme for this year’s homecoming was Candyland.
All of the nominees waited for their special moment which was held at halftime. In the meantime the El Diamante football team and Redwood football began their game. The game remained scoreless throughout the first quarter, but unfortunately Redwood made a touchdown in the second quarter making the score 0-6 El Diamante. At halftime the marching band, color guard, cheer team, and dance team all performed. After all of the performances it was finally time to crown the homecoming king and queen.
Throughout the game, emotions were at an all time high for members of the homecoming court. Some were nervous, but many were filled with nothing but excitement. With this experience at the game, the homecoming court candidates took away many lessons.
When asked how she felt to be a part of the homecoming court experience, Reagan Cooper responded with “It was really exciting and super fun. I didn’t expect it to be as much fun as it was. It really was just a great experience to be a part of the school spirit”.
Along with that, she claimed that she loved being able to hang out with everyone at the game and was so excited to be a part of this amazing opportunity.
Another homecoming court candidate, Pedro Campos, stated how his chance to be on homecoming court was an “extremely surreal experience.”
He never thought he would make it to the point of being a member of the Top 10; however, he was really grateful and shocked to actually make it to the point of being one of the candidates. At the game itself, Pedro commented on how before the official announcement, all of the members were so nervous and practically on the edge of their seats.
He also stated how the members “looked at the clock more than the actual game”. His main takeaway was that “he loved seeing how supportive people could be”.
All of the nominees walked down the track as they were being announced. The crowd watched while they lined up for their special moment. Each nominee was given a poster folded in half to open. Only one king nominee would have a picture of King Kandy on the inside of his poster and one queen nominee would have a picture of Queen Frostine on the inside of her poster. The nominees were finally told to open their posters and the winners were revealed. Homecoming King and Queen were Jayden Lopez and Macie Kenison.
After halftime the game continued and Redwood scored again and completed a two point conversion making the game 0-14 El Diamante. El Diamante fought in the end and were able to score making the game 7-14. The homecoming game was both suspenseful and exciting for not only the candidates, but for El D as a whole.