![At the bottom of the third inning, the Lions are still scoreless. Rowe stands at home plate, preparing to bat, while Vandenbrink stands off to the side as the next batter up. Despite having the bases loaded, the team was unable to score any runs. “It’s just the beginning of the season. We’re just going to be playing out best by June, [and] that’s where champions are,” Rowe said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_3077-1200x900.jpg)
![All smiles. The group poses for a photo with last year’s book, “This is Our House,” along with their award for third Best in Show. Meikle, who was an Editor-in-Chief for the yearbook last year as well, holds both and stands at the center of the group. “That was an amazing feeling, going and grabbing the third place award,” Meikle said. “All of it paid off. I cried so much over that book, being able to receive [the award] was one of the highlights of my high school career, it was like the coolest thing ever.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/8bookpose_philly-1200x800.jpg)
High school life can be full of traditions, and West Linn is no different. Homecoming celebrations are typically about football and royalty, but also about the community. This year’s Homecoming was kicked off with the annual pep assembly on October 4, featuring cheering students, games and challenges, and the introduction of the Homecoming court. ASB president Beatrice Gilroy, senior, helped lead the assembly.
“Some things that are unique to homecoming would be the court,” Gilroy said. “My favorite part was watching the class competitions take place. We get to see cheer and dance sometimes at halftime, but some of those unique aspects to an assembly like the competitions and other announcements.”
Senior Class Director, Jonny McCoy, senior, also helped lead the assembly.
“Every year it’s kind of a tradition to have a Homecoming assembly,” McCoy said. “This year it fell on a Wednesday, which was before Homecoming and was during Life class, which we instilled this year for assemblies and other things of that nature.”
ASB took time to prepare for and organize the school-wide assembly.
“There’s a lot more preparation that goes into an assembly than it sometimes may appear,” Gilroy said. “The main thing is coordinating the different participants of the assembly. So getting 15 people from about each grade from all the Life classes was a lot, making sure each Life class gave us someone and then making sure we let people know what part of the assembly they’re supposed to be participating in, where to sit, and things like that. And then any performers that we have, so cheer, dance, choir, band— we all have to coordinate with their coaches or directors.”
Moving forward, there will be two more events following the assembly, including the football game tonight at 7 p.m. and the homecoming dance on October 7. The purpose of the assembly was to build anticipation for these events.
“I would say [we wanted to] just to rally that spirit,” Gilroy said. “I personally love getting the whole school together, I think that’s so fun.”
