Hot Springs hosts Homecoming

It was a beautiful Friday for a Hot Springs homecoming. The sun shone, the birds chirped and the young men donned dresses for a beauty pageant. Yes, it was definitely homecoming in Hot Springs.

Hot Springs High School kicked off a whole afternoon of celebrating with a flag football competition on their football field. Members of the Savage Horsemen football team acted as coaches and head coach Seth Pettit acted as referee. In the first match-up, the seniors took on the freshmen, with the seniors ultimately winning thanks to the quick passing of quarterback, and Hot Springs volleyball member, Matea DePoe. While DePoe had some quick passes, fellow volleyball player and senior Jordon Fisher was quick on her feet, rushing past the freshmen at high rates of speed.

While the freshmen and seniors were duking it out the juniors were taking on the sophomores in a close game, with the juniors ultimately prevailing.

Once the first round of games were completed the seniors took on the juniors and the freshmen took on the sophomores. While both games were going on at the same time, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that most of the crowd’s attention was on the junior and senior game. While the coaches, referees and announcers had a little trouble keeping score, the seniors were victorious.

In the next round of competition students sat at a table to see just how quickly they could stuff their faces with pie. It turned out that Savage Horsemen football player Carter Farrier was the pie champion, cleaning his plate before any of the other contestants had a chance.

Next on the agenda was a competition pitting the grade levels against each other. There were teams of two, with a male and female from each grade paired up. Each teammate took turns putting on pants and a football helmet, running through football obstacles and then either returning a volleyball serve or knocking over a football dummy. As they did with flag football, the seniors dominated this round of games, giving them victory in homecoming.

While all of this was exciting and got the crowd pumped up, everyone really got into the “Miss Savage Beauty Pageant” which was held in the old gymnasium. Brave young men got all dolled up in dresses, high heels, wigs and pounds and pounds of make-up to strut their stuff in front of their classmates.

The roars of the crowd as these “ladies” sauntered out to the center of the basketball court was nearly deafening. Michael Brooks represented the junior class, Nick Maliniak represented the senior class, Zack Maliniak represented the sophomore class, Jared Massey represented the freshmen class and Shane Hoff represented junior high.

The winner was based on the number of applause and Nick Maliniak won in a landslide, garnering the most applause and cat-calls and a perfect 10 score from the judges.

Immediately following the pageant, everyone headed outside to take part in their parade. The volleyball team climbed into the back of a pick-up truck while the football team rode atop of a fire engine.

That night before the game, all of the senior football players were honored at what would be their last home game of the year. Seniors who were honored included Conor Ballantyne, Carter Farrier, Ben Holland, Robert Jackson, Isaiah Joner, Steven Reistroffer, Kyle Steineback, Chris Stobie and Mitch Thompson.

At halftime the Homecoming King and Queen were named. Queen honors went to MacKenzie Wood and the Hot Springs Homecoming King went to Robert Jackson.

Nancy Winebrenner, one of the organizers of the event, said it went off without a hitch.

“We just had a great time,” she said. “We couldn’t have asked for better weather, and it is just a great way for the kids to have some fun.”