Before the dance and the football game, students and staff gathered in the gym to get excited for the weekend. The assembly was led by Student Council and consisted of games, performances and lots of fun.

The assembly kicked off with a game of musical chairs but with a twist. Before players could sit down, they had to make a lay-up on the basketball hoop, then run back and sit down. Basketball player Henry Jones (12) used his basketball skills and, more importantly, his chair-pulling skills to win the event.

But Jones’ win in the event was slightly overshadowed by a dispute between two other musical chairs players. Everett Shryock (staff) and Lucian Derbish (09) were both going for the final chair with four players remaining, which led to a fight over the chair between the two. After more than a minute brawling, Shryock was finally able to come away with the chair.

“He was probably there first, but I didn’t hear a whistle,” Shryock said.

Shryrock and Derbish may have been unfriendly on the court, but Shryock had all good things to say when asked what he wanted to tell Derbish: “I’m sorry, I appreciate your game and good job.”

Derbish also was all class and said, “(Shryock) deserved it, and I’ll give him the win.”

The crowd was engaged in the fight, as it was maybe the loudest the gym got for the entire assembly. Derbish said it “felt good” to hear his class cheering him on.

The fight for the chair was followed by a game of class royalty tug-of-war. The sophomores, led by football players Grady Agone (10) and Deacon Schmitt (10), won both of their games pretty easily, crowning them the champions of tug-of-war.

Next came dance routines, which were not only done by the poms team, but also by a group of football and basketball players. Hours before the big homecoming football game, the boys showed off their talents in dancing — and even a bit of shadow boxing. They were followed by a dance performance from the poms team, which was probably a little more coordinated (but that’s subjective).

The final game played was teachers vs. students in dodgeball. It wasn’t easy to convince teachers to play, but once they were out there they made it count. The teachers ended up winning the game, largely thanks to the aggressive strategy of coach Chris Jones (staff) to run right at the students and ignore the boundary.

The win was also largely in part due to the hard work of Dean Brockway (staff), who turned back the clock to his high school athlete days. “I just don’t have my dodgeball game like I did back in the day. I got a bad back, bad knees, but I fought through it,” Brockway said.

Despite the pain, Brockway came up big with a late elimination, in which he said he was trying to be a team player and “take out the weakest deer in the pack.” Deer technically travel in herds, but either way it was a gritty performance from Brockway.

Before the assembly ended, the freshmen Student Council election results were delivered: Fisher Kintz (09) was elected president, Lexi Ottinger (09) was elected vice president, Alex Avila (09) was elected treasurer and Khloe Park (09) was elected secretary. The results came after the students ran campaigns, advocating for students’ votes.