By Lawson Bowman, Shield Editor
Homecoming week at NRCA means that the campus is bustling with activities and school spirit. Monday marked the start of the daily themes, followed by Homecoming speeches on Wednesday and football later in the week. On Friday, the entire NRCA student body came together in the high school gym for the pep rally. This event got students excited to celebrate their school and show off their school pride before the Homecoming and Powderpuff games.
The highlight of the Homecoming pep rally was the Powderpuff cheer routine. Every year at NRCA, the senior cheerleaders choreograph and teach the senior guys a dance routine centered around a fun theme. The senior Powderpuff cheerleaders spent the weeks leading up to Homecoming perfecting the dance the varsity cheerleaders created. Senior cheerleader Avery Galligan said, “We went through a couple of practices throughout the weeks with the Powderpuff cheerleaders and choreographed the routine outside of school hours.”
In addition to performing the routine at the pep rally, the Powderpuff cheerleaders also performed at halftime of the Saturday Powderpuff game. Senior Noah Laurel said, “I feel like our class has grown closer together from everyone going to practices and stuff like that, and everyone got to know each other better from talking to each other. [It] definitely brought unity to our class. Every boy should do it. It’s really fun.”
The theme for this year's Powderpuff performance was Minions. The dance, featuring the iconic characters Gru and Vector, was a fan favorite. Laurel expressed his excitement about the preparation of Powderpuff and getting people involved. “Me and Andrew Newkirk, I know, were going around the hall screaming, ’You’ve got to join Powderpuff,’ because we needed everyone,” Laurel said. He pointed out that the high number of participants proved their recruiting strategy worked. Approximately 45 guys joined the Powderpuff cheerleading routine.
The senior cheerleaders enjoyed coaching and seeing everyone’s hard work play out smoothly. “Continuing on our theme of community this year, it was great to see the senior guys bond with each other to perform for the school,” Galligan said.
Many students from the pep rally crowd showed up in Knights Stadium on Friday night for the annual Homecoming football game. The varsity Knights beat the Ravenscroft Ravens 41-12. At halftime, the Homecoming Court was presented, and senior Zoe Richardson was announced as the 2024 Homecoming Queen and presented a crown and sash by last year’s Homecoming Queen, Lillie Wright.
Homecoming week concluded on Saturday night with the juniors versus seniors in the annual Powderpuff football game. During halftime, the Knights of the Round Table were announced. Christopher Heffernan was named the King of the Knights of the Round Table and awarded a robe and crown. After that, the senior Powderpuff cheerleaders rushed the field in Minion costumes and performed their dance routine for the parents and students in the stands. After a close score throughout the game, the senior Powderpuff football team stole the lead in the fourth quarter, winning with a final score of 21-7 and wrapping up another successful NRCA Homecoming celebration.
