Ella Katz Homecoming 2016 was full of pep, spirit and a rah rah rah (well, as much of a rah, rah, rah that Latin could have given our evident lack of excitement). The festivities started on Friday afternoon with an infamous Latin “Pep rally” where the student body (that is the students who didn’t ditch last period and then get called on for the student government selection at random) gathered in the gym to get pumped up for the weekend ahead. Overly enthusiastic communications chair, Ian Cummins, made this year’s pep rally much more enjoyable than previous years. Of course, the band, although not the same without Mr. T, also helped to get the crowd riled up. The blaring sound of the captivating drums mixed with the forceful trombones made some of us a little too excited (shoutout to Nick Schuler who threw out 7 dabs in a row after winning the sibling scooter race with his older brother John Schuler)—congrats Nick! The festivities on Saturday were kicked off with the boys JV soccer game against Northside College Prep which concluded with a final score of 0-0. Following was the girls JV field hockey team who played. St. Ignatius around 11am. Sadly, although the JV players were full of spirit and excitement, they ended up letting in one goal too many. After the JV was the Varsity field hockey, who played a great game but unfortunately walked off the field feeling nothing but the pure sentiment of frustration. One noteworthy part of this third game surprisingly happened not on the field but on the sidelines, when junior Emma Weiss brought her adorable puppy, Riley to the turf. What felt like the entire crowd (consisting of both Ignatius and Latin fans) gathered around Riley, fawning over her rather than the exciting plays by the field hockey team. In summation, meeting Riley was the highlight of everyone’s day, including all the victorious athletes. If you didn’t meet her on Saturday, you should definitely ask Emma to bring her to a gathering or something—maybe incorporate her into a two minute talent? The afternoon concluded with the boys Varsity soccer game, which had the biggest turnout in the stands. Although captains Ike Baldwin, Alden Sulger, and John Schuler weren’t on yellow scooters meant for four year olds, the game was still fun to watch, as the boys put two goals in the net. After the game, it was time for all of the student-athletes and fans to return home and clean up. However, the term “clean up” has very different connotations for the girls and boys— for the boys it means to simply hop in the shower, throw on some sort of socially accepted shirt and a pair of nice pants (from Bonobos?). For the girls, the time to get ready for homecoming decreases as you go through high school (counterintuitive— I know). Freshman take the time to do their perfect hair and makeup as they put on their dress that they spent too much time searching for. But for the upperclassmen girls, besides showering (no, the time it takes to shower unfortunately does not decrease as you progress through high school), the realistic “getting ready process” is finding a fall-colored (aka black) dress to throw on and your go-to pair of heels. You look in the mirror to see if your hair is ok— once you take five minutes to realize that it isn’t and it won’t be, you get over it. The thought of jewelry doesn’t even enter your mind— you barely remember to put on perfume. After throwing on some mascara, concealer, and maybe some liquid liner if you are really feeling it (a process which takes all of 2 minutes), you are ready to go to the dance. The Paris Club was the perfect venue for our homecoming dance. The club atmosphere was fun and, of course, DJ Rahm was playing all the best hits. As Junior Eli Bucksbaum describes it, “I was pumped on my way to the Paris Club… I was dressed to impress and ready to get groovy (well, as groovy as I could get at a school dance). Anyways, when I arrived, I walked into a fun atmosphere with great vibes all around. DJ Rahm was killing it, and Zavella Sanders was dancing like nobody was watching… So overall, I’d say it was a pretty awesome homecoming.” I would have to agree with Eli in saying that the homecoming dance this year was the best one I have ever been to. I don’t know if it was the venue, the people walking around with the cheesy garlic bread and to-die-for-meatballs, or Jack Brophy’s killer dance moves (that I obviously had to join in on), but the night was epic. As a typical Latin student might say, “it was lit.”]]>