South Haven News

By Carley Russell

South Haven’s 2025 Winter Homecoming was a memorable week with all the different themes. If you were to walk the halls during this week you would see things like a canoe getting drug through the halls or a gorilla and banana making their way around the school. This year’s homecoming theme was “Welcome to the Jungle.” The hallways were certainly very decorative with leaves and vine everywhere.

On Monday, Feb. 10, the dress up theme was “The Bear Necessities.” This day was also anything but a backpack or favorite stuffed animal and pajama day. Monday’s JH/HS winner was Maddox Pond who brought a canoe for his backpack. The Elementary winner was Bowen Crenshaw who was fully decked out in spiderman gear.

On Tuesday, Feb. 11, the theme was “Tacky Tourist.” On this day, they were meant to dress as tourists in the tackiest clothes. There seemed to be a lot of middle aged dads walking the halls. Tuesday’s JH/HS winner was Brady Russell who was rocking some khaki shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and a map of the jungle. The elementary winner was Alexa Betzen who was also styling in some of her best tourist looks. Sadly, Wednesday was canceled due to weather, which the theme was “Go Bananas.”

The next day of homecoming was Thursday, Feb. 13. The theme for that day was “Hunter vs. Prey.” Many students showed up in animal print and decked out in camo, someone even going as far to show up as a gorilla. Thursday’s JH/HS winner was Mae Nicholson, who was decked out head to toe in camo and looked ready to take on some wild animals. The elementary winner was Aryanna Brown who was also rocking a lot of camo.

The last day of homecoming spirit week was Friday, Feb. 14. That day’s theme was “The Cardinal’s Nest.” You could see lots of Cardinals showing their cardinal pride in their school’s colors. Friday’s JH/HS winner was Kylie Tompkins wearing her best Cardinal gear. The elementary winner was Micah Aguilar who was decked out in his school’s colors.

The overall winners for the spirit week were Leah Harris and Cole Spencer who could be seen rocking the homecoming spirit week outfits all week. So congrats to all of the homecoming spirit day winners.

Also on Friday, the highschoolers spend the day making the homecoming wall poster, which the winners were announced later at pep rally. In first place were the juniors, with the sophomores in second place. The freshman took third place which left the seniors in last place.

Also during the pep rally, the homecoming candidates played a game. The game consisted of each class running down the court and keeping the balloon up all the way back, then popping the balloon, and they did this four times and got four letters to spell out HOCO. “Everything about homecoming is fun. The Pep rally game was to keep the balloon up, it was fun,” Rosyln Moreland, the 1st grade attendant says.

The game winners were, first place to the sophomores, Makenzie Callison and Cole Spencer, second place was the freshman, Carley Russell and Ely Tompkins, third place the seniors, Aubrey Pond and Grayson Kuchar, and last place was the juniors, Annabelle Burden and Landon Kuchar. The first grade attendant also participated who was Rosaline Morland and Ryder Tompkins.

On Friday night, at half time of the boys game, the homecoming court happened. Each of the candidates walked out and with a little biography of themselves. This was followed by last year’s Homecoming King and Queen, which was Jacee Thuerer and Alex Smith, along with the first grade attendants. This year’s 2025 Winter Homecoming King and Queen were Makenzie Callison and Landon Kuchar.

“I didn’t expect to win, I expected the seniors to win, but I was indeed excited to win,” the Homecoming Queen, Mackenzie Callison said. Congratulations to both of them.

Finally, to end off all of the homecoming fun, there was a homecoming dance on Saturday, Feb. 15. This dance also doubled as the Winter Formal for the school.

“I had a lot of fun at the dance. We danced a lot of line dances and the food was good. I think it was a success for STUCO and I would definitely go again next year,” says Emma Wiiest, the Freshman STUCO class representative. That sums up all of the fun activities during the SHS homecoming week.

Congratulations to all of the winners and I hope everyone enjoyed homecoming week.