After having skipped a year, the homecoming rally made a comeback, Sept. 11 with a handful of fun games, teacher competitions and homecoming court reveals hosted by ASB to promote the upcoming homecoming game and raise school spirit.

With upperclassmen watching from the left side of the gym and underclassmen watching from the right, Buena’s cheer and dance team got students pumped up as they opened the rally. 

As the rally happened to fall upon Sept. 11, MC’s seniors Reagan Espinoza and Elijah Garcia encouraged the crowd to take a moment of silence to remember the lives lost during the tragedy 23 years ago. 

To start the fun, ASB demoed teacher dress up, for rally A teachers Aidan Kelly and Adam Colman were dressed up by students in a relay competition. Once both teachers were dressed in their silly outfits, the students cheered for the winner: Colman. 

“The games were super fun to watch and experience with my friends,” junior Madelyn Azevedo said. After attending her third homecoming rally at Buena, she describes the excitement and anticipation the rally brought to students. 

The second game that was played was called giant tic-tac-to, a similar relay-style game. While students were running back and forth attempting to fill the tic-tac-to board, both sets of bleachers continued cheering at the top of their lungs. At the end of the round it came out to be a tie between both teams. 

Junior Vincent Sandoval, a game participant in the rally, decided to play to “bring joy” and “laughter” to students watching and to dress up one of his favorite teachers, Antoinette Perez. 

The last highly anticipated game was student versus teacher dodgeball. Five willing teachers faced off against five student volunteers in a back and forth battle that got students fired up. One of the last teachers standing against three students was Noah Magana, but in a turn of events, he snatched the victory from the students.

“The teacher versus student dodgeball was awesome, it was definitely a highlight for me. Teachers killed it and won both games,” ASB adviser and rally coordinator Meghan Malloy said.

Senior class president Reagan Espinoza believes that this year, the rally was a huge success, especially since they were not able to host a homecoming rally the year prior. “I think we all did a fantastic job to get the students hyped to attend the [homecoming] game,” Espinoza said.

To conclude the fun, Espinoza and Garcia announced the homecoming court winners, calling the royalty pairs from each grade up to the center of the gym to collect their sashes. As each pair came to the stage, audience members were cheerful and excited, clapping for the winners.