2024 Homecoming events bring excitement, draw crowds
Nathan Pennekamp (center) just after being crowned Homecoming King.
Photo credit: Josiah Seabaugh
By Josiah Horvath
Concordia’s 2024 Homecoming Week from September 23-28 was full of student events including Meet the Royalty on Monday, the Homecoming Rally in the Quad on Tuesday, the Variety Show on Wednesday, a Powderpuff football game on Thursday, and a sand volleyball tournament on Friday.
Monday’s Meet the Royalty featured introductions of the 10 Homecoming King and Queen candidates and snacks for spectators. The five male and five female candidates faced off in a group challenge that doused them in water and prompted cheers and shouts from the crowd.
Tuesday’s Homecoming Rally in the Quad involved large inflatables, a food truck with free waffles, a refreshment stand, mini competitions among students and coaches, and yard games like cornhole.
Sophomore Micah Knerl helped out at events throughout the week and said the police appeared near the end of the Homecoming Rally because the crowd was too loud.
“People were still excited to be there even as the event was ending,” said Knerl. “It was a big deal.”
Wednesday’s Variety Show was hosted by senior Micah Henschen and sophomore Reagan Martens and involved a series of skits that encouraged laughter from the audience and ended with a visit from the pep band.
Sophomore Ellen Klintworth said the Variety Show was “a good break after I’d spent the first half of the week studying for a test.”
Klintworth said her favorite skit was by freshman Noah Niederklein, who solved a Rubik’s cube while giving a devotion based on the puzzle.
She also said she enjoyed the skit where sophomores Isaiah Hoehner and Cole Sharar simulated the gallops of horses with their hands as part of a new audible art form. Audience members then asked Hoehner and Sharar long-winded, pre-scripted questions, prompting laughter from the rest of the audience.
Junior Jack Hagan helped out at Homecoming events and took a whipped cream pie to the face for the good of the cause during the Variety Show.
Thursday’s Powderpuff football game was like regular football, except the women were the players and the men were the cheerleaders.
On Friday, teams of six to eight people competed in a sand volleyball tournament on the court outside the Janzow Campus Center.
“I’m very proud of how the events went,” said Knerl. “We had a great turnout for all of them.”
Student Activities Council member junior Nathan Kurth said he helped with the week’s events through jobs like “obtaining drone imagery” at the Rally in the Quad, moving stage items at the Variety Show, and generally being present to make sure events ran smoothly.
Knerl said it warmed his heart to see the appreciation of Concordia’s student body during Homecoming Week.
“You need people to be out there helping out,” Knerl said, “but you don’t expect people to be actually appreciative.”
