East’s annual homecoming volleyball game started at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11. Senior emcees Aundrea Woods and Corinne Reed highlighted the ups and downs of the four matches throughout the night.
In order to distinguish between grade-level teams, each class’s players walked onto the court wearing customized t-shirts. The freshman wore white shirts with their last names, team numbers, and a fleur de lis on them. The sophomores wore tie-dyed white and green shirts with their last names and team numbers on them. Similarly, the juniors wore tie-dyed white and blue shirts with their team numbers on them. Finally, seniors wore red shirts with their last names and team numbers on them.
Emcees Brad Monkemeyer and Jamie Heuser served as secondary referees alongside former East teacher Jim Reed. Reed, who coached girl’s volleyball and taught AP Literature, British Literature, and English 9 Honors, retired in 2023.
The first matches were the juniors vs. the freshman with the juniors predictably winning against the underclassmen. The second match was seniors vs. sophomores with the seniors winning after a close few points. After the tug-of-war loss by seniors to sophomores at the kick-off assembly on Monday, the rivalry carried the game, especially at times where the sophomores had more points than the seniors.
For the third place match, the freshman competed against the sophomores with the freshman winning against the sophomores. Though the freshman lost their first match, they had a comeback against the sophomores which ended up placing them in third place overall.
In the championship game, seniors and juniors faced off, ending the night with a final win by the seniors. This left the spirit point standings as seniors in first place, with juniors behind them. In a twist, the freshmen ended the night with more points than the sophomores.
Overall, the energy was high in the newly air-conditioned gym, with all classes cheering for the players on their team. Some popular cheers included the rollercoaster, “scoreboard” when a team would score and after the opposing team would score, the whole class would turn their back to the crowd. While some of these may seem petty, in the end, they added to the atmosphere of the night.
