This year, East’s Homecoming events were kicked off late in September with the annual HOCO pep assembly last Monday. 

The assembly began as usual, featuring performances from the cheerleaders, the marching band, and the choir, which sang the National Anthem. In addition to the performances, clubs, fall sport athletes and the spring state qualifiers were all announced. Students in these categories walked across the gym to sit in rows by the band while the dance team did “Clips and Claps” on the sidelines in front of their grades. 

As part of tradition, one of the small games was played to gain interest in the small games assembly, and each grade participated in one round of tug-of-war. The seniors competed against the sophomores, and the juniors competed against the freshmen. The juniors and seniors both won and then played for first during the small games assembly last Thursday, while the sophomores and freshmen competed for third place. 

The yearly Pie-in-the-Eye competition participants were introduced towards the end of the assembly. It is an exciting Homecoming event where a few teachers compete to raise the most money for their respective charities, and the winner gets a pie thrown in their face. This year, Taylor Cyr started off strong with the presentations for her fundraiser, Project Purple. Following her, Bradley Kaplan, introduced his fundraiser for leukemia research with an impressive entrance. Last but not least came Jon Ryan, the winner of the Pie-in-the-Eye competition, who was raising money for leukemia and lymphoma research. After raising the most money, he got a pie in the face at the small games assembly later in the week.

The assembly ended with the band playing “When the Saints Go Marching in” and with the Saint Charles East school song. It was a successful event that started the 2025 HOCO week off strong.