The Student Council and various other organizations helped create a homecoming week packed full of events. Throughout the week the high school students were busy attending events, dressing up and showing their school spirit. 

Student Council 

The North Polk High School Student Council may have not gotten the recognition they deserve, but they could be seen throughout the entirety of homecoming week. Most of the events that go on during homecoming week are thanks Liz Huether, the student council advisor, and the council members. The council starts preparations for homecoming in July and works tirelessly until the week is over. 

The student council is in charge of homecoming apparel, which takes about 3-4 weeks to plan; window painting businesses takes about two hours to complete and one hour to clean; decorating the hallways, which takes about 10 hours to accomplish.

The parade turned out to be the most work out of all the events. Huether broke down the planning process, “It takes three meetings to get just the parade route down. We map out a staging area to line up the floats, contact teams and clubs, reach out to building principals and find vehicles.”

While a lot of sweat, and possibly some tears, went into the planning of homecoming week, the student council is eager to plan another successful homecoming next year. 

Coronation

Coronation this year was held during Pride Night at 7 p.m. Because of the jungle theme, the people in charge of coronation made sure to include the theme into their decorations, as well as their corsages and boutonnieres.

Sydney Mast, chairman of the coronation committee, described the planning process, “Some preparing needed include buying crowns and decorations, getting in contact with janitors and Mr. Harper to help set up, getting the past king/queen/prince/princess to come back and announce royalty, and getting a photographer lined up.”

Students were able to vote for their grade representatives Tuesday of homecoming week. The top two representatives of freshmen, sophomores and juniors were elected as royalty. The top Seniors move on to an entire school vote for royalty. 

The representatives this year included: freshmen, Mia Doonan and Seth Sparks;  sophomores, Abby Bell and Brock Miller; juniors, Ashley Owen and Will Herselius; and  senior representatives included Madeline Bequeaith, Alana Doonan, Bailey Knights, Talula Monk, Bryce Aspengren, Cale Engebretson, Andrew Haney, Jack Noble, and Jevin Sullivan.

 Bryce Aspengren and Talula Monk were elected as king and queen. Cale Engebretson and Alana Doonan were elected as prince and princess. 

Activities 

The week of homecoming was very successful for all of the high school fall sports.

On Monday, the girls’ and boys cross country teams had a meet at the Ballard Golf Course. Girls got fifth place and boys got first place. 

Volleyball played a home game Tuesday of homecoming against Gilbert. North Polk girls won 3-1. 

Freshmen Football lost their game on Monday 14-20. 

JV Football played Monday of homecoming week. The team lost 12-8. 

Varsity Football  played against Grinnell for the homecoming game Friday night. Students and parents alike were clad in their spirit gear as they cheered on the team. The varsity team won the game 42-21.

The marching band also performed during the varsity football game. The band started practice for their show, “The Darker Side of Magic” during the first week of August. The show consists of  songs that create a dark and mysterious show.

Grace Smithey, a drum major for the band, reflects on the season so far saying, “This year we have a ton of added effects that we are still spending lots of time on and making sure we are paying attention to all the details! There has been a lot of hard work from the band this year, especially coming back after a year with no contests.”

Pride Night  

Thursday night of homecoming week the North Polk High School plans a night full of activities. These activities include coronation, dance team, cheer, a relay and powderpuff. 

Dance team performed a routine and varsity cheerleaders did a dance routine with their fathers. The duos danced to “Dance Like Your Daddy” where the fathers had to assist their daughters in stunts.

Powderpuff, which is when the senior and junior girls play flag football, had their game during pride night. The seniors won 12-6.

Senior Alexis Dorsett planned pride night. Dorsett and Grace Smithey announced each fall sport and coaches gave a short speech of their season so far. 

Dorsett was in charge of planning the scripts and a relay for the night. While she enjoyed the night, the task was assigned to her very late on. She described the experience saying,“ I started planning it [the parade] last minute because it was something that fell on my plate the day before. I had to rush to email teachers and coaches and make sure we had all our head coaches attending, so that they would be able to give a short speech. I also had to find staff members who would want to participate in the relay.”

The relay included teams from each grade as well as a staff team. The teams had to perform various skills where the team members had to put on items of clothes, hop on one leg and run to the finish line. 

Parade and Pep Rally 

Friday afternoon the school held a parade to end the week with a bang. High school clubs, organizations and sports all had floats to represent themselves in the parade.

While two years ago the parade was held in Polk City, this year the student council opted with an easier approach: Alleman. When the parade was in Polk City the middle school, Central Elementary and some high schoolers all had to be bused and accounted for during the parade. This year, the only students that needed bussed were the West Elementary kids. This helped the school plan the parade because they did not have to worry about transporting so many students, which in turn was more cost effective for the district. 

Students and community members lined down the streets of Alleman to watch the parade commence. The kindergarten and preschool students helped countdown the seconds until the parade started. 

After the parade, the entire district filed onto the football field to see the dance team and cheerleaders perform. During the rally, the homecoming court was recognized, athletes talked about their seasons, and the band played the school fight song. 

Homecoming Dance 

While students are harsh critics on school dances, Jessica Trier and Clint Albertsen took up the daunting task. 

With a strict budget, Trier and Albertsen had to decide where different portions of the money would go. They ultimately decided that they would opt out of a DJ and have students create a playlist and run the music booth. Trier and Albertsen also had parents donate food and water for the dance to cut down costs. 

The dance cost $5 and was held in the high school commons. Because of the lack of a DJ, there were no strobe lights, causing the common’s lights to be left on for safety reasons. 

Trier was able to grant rewards for the students and parents that helped with the dance. She said,“Mr. Albertsen and I met with students who wanted to help plan the dance.  These students received credit toward their senior class trip for the time they spent on planning.” 

Hallie Winther reflected on the dance saying, “I think that it was a lot less fun than it has been in the past. I think we should have had lights but I understand why we didn’t.” 

Many students would agree that while the dance was fun, they do not enjoy simply jumping up and down in a tight group of people. 

“I think we need to plan organized dances, like wedding dances so we don’t have to jump all the time,” stated Jessica Butler. 

While people wanted to see aspects of the dance changed, most students would agree that it was exciting to finally have a normal school dance.