Homecoming was a night to remember for everyone at Hamilton High, especially for our homecoming royalty winners.
AMPA junior Nicholas Richardson was chosen as homecoming prince. He said he was super excited that he won. “This is kinda crazy,” he said. “I’m nervous but excited.”
His run against his opponent and long time friend, AMPA junior Tyron Fernando, was a tough contest. Initially, he didn’t believe that he would win; he had many doubts about his chances. “I’d say it’s a lose-lose situation,” Tyron said. “If I win, I’d have won against one of my friends, and if I lose, well, I lose…It could go either way.”
As the competition grew tense between friends, the pressure of winning grew increasingly high. “It was really hard,” Nicholas said. “I didn’t think it was going to be this intense, but yeah, it was fun.”
Our homecoming duchess Summer Olunkwa, a sophomore in AMPA, thought the same thing about the process of running for her spot. “The whole experience was very stressful,” she said. “But we got through it and conquered it.”
Though she felt it was very tough, she was super happy with the results. “I feel blessed because not everybody got this opportunity and I really put my hard work into this,” Summer said. “I don’t know, y’all. I’m so happy right now.”
Summer said she didn’t think that she was going to win her tough competition against her opponent, Alina Brown. “I mean, like, she’s beautiful,” Summer said. “She’s so beautiful, and we both tried our best.”
For some students, their expectations didn’t match the reality of the night. A hot topic during the dance was the food being offered. Chicken tenders, chips, beverages, ice cream- were some of the items being offered during the dance. But some students were again anticipating more. Dr. Deguzman, the planner of homecoming, got some of the same feedback. “I asked a couple students and they said they had fun. There’s always things that we can always improve, like lines at the photo booth, different food, maybe the type of music.”
Mikhaila Ellison, an SAS senior, was one of these students. “I was expecting more food options,” she said. Many students also stated that because of the cold weather, they could not enjoy the items being sold because the items themselves were cold.
Overall being with friends was one of the main highlights of homecoming. Throughout the whole night everyone was laughing, taking pictures and making memories.
Dr. Deguzman said it was “a really good thing to see everybody coming together, their friends getting the reward, and just everybody having a good time.”
