![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
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![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Students kick off homecoming with spirit rally
Seniors cheer for their class after they make an entrance onto the field. Traditionally, seniors run through a paper banner in a special entrance.
Students competed in the homecoming spirit rally yesterday as a kickoff for the dance yesterday evening and the upcoming game today.
Each class competed in a screaming competition and came up with an individual class skit that included their class theme. The homecoming courts also participated in a relay race for their class and students competed in two tug of war events. The freshmen started the rally with their class skit, using their “into the jungle” theme.
“I think freshmen lived up to their expectations,” freshmen class president Kelsey Wu (9) said. “I didn’t think that our class would be as spirited as we are now, but I feel that it’s going pretty well. I’m definitely pleased by the outcome of this spirit week.”
The freshmen and juniors then faced off with a tug of war competition. The freshmen beat the juniors, breaking the long-held pattern of freshman losing to the other grades. Freshmen in particular were excited about the outcome, and looked forward to the outcome of their first spirit event at the high school.
“I was really surprised. Of course it’s good that we beat the juniors, and of course we were all really excited about that,” Jerry Peng (9) said. “At the middle school, we had really boring spirit events, and no one was really into it, but here at the high school I feel that we were a lot more into it.”
Following the tug of war, the sophomores presented their skit, modeling the story off of the X-Factor, while portraying the different classes as competitors with names suited to their themes.
Each grade then participated in a classwide screaming competition, each taking turns to be measured by a decibel meter. The juniors ended up winning contest, with 109.6 decibels. The seniors followed with 109.2 decibels, in third were the sophomores with 107.4 decibels, and the freshmen came in last with 107.2 decibels.
The next event held was a teacher name that tune, where the jazz band played a few measures of a song while two teachers representing each class raced to figure it out first. Christopher Nikoloff and Dr. Ruth Meyer represented the senior class, Jeffrey Draper and Juston Glass represented the junior class, Diane Main and Julie Wheeler represented the sophomore class, and Laura Lang-Ree and Brian Larsen represented the freshman class. The sophomore teachers won the name that song competition, correctly answering for three songs.
The homecoming court relay race then took place, as the prince and princess spun around ten times, crawled through tubes, popped balloons between their backs, carried pool noodles between their foreheads, and finally smashed whipped cream pies on their deans’ faces. The seniors came in first, followed by the juniors, the freshmen, and in last the sophomores.
The juniors performed their skit next, acting out the presidential debates with different candidates representing each class. The senior skit followed, bringing in characters from Spongebob Squarepants, The Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo, telling a story about how the freshman Nemo encountered several different characters while senior Dory searched for him.
The final event of the rally was the senior versus sophomore tug of war, ending in a sophomore victory. After the fact, it was determined that the sophomores had an extra three people and the victory was then turned over to the seniors.
Senior Oisin Coveney reflects on his last spirit rally of high school.
“I think it was awesome, the spirit from everybody in the crowds,” Oisin said. “I don’t know how it could have gone better. It was definitely a good start to the school year.”
Following the rally, the Homecoming dance was held yesterday night at 8 p.m. and the football game will be held today at 7 p.m. on Davis Field.
Additional reporting by Raveena Kapatkar
Lauren Russell (10) is a reporter in her second year on staff for the Winged Post. After joining the staff for freshman year, she looks forward to continuing...