To kick off Dallastown’s 2024 Homecoming festivities, our fiercely committed students and staff show off for Spirit Week with fun, unifying themes to get Dallastown ready for Homecoming. From Sept. 23-27, DHS Wildcat Nation participated in showing their school spirit each day, and here’s the breakdown of it.
Day 1: Yeehaw & Pickleball
To commemorate the love of the pickleball craze over the summer and to showcase a nice, classic country look, students and staff were told to wear Yeehaw for underclassmen and Pickleball for upperclassmen.
Day 2: Teen Beach Movie (Bikers or Surfers)
A Disney favorite came into D-town, and the student council presented for day two the option for students and staff to choose whether to be a surfer or a biker, just like the film Teen Beach Movie.
Day 3: Pajama Day
Getting ready for Homecoming can be stressful, so to make it easier for DHS Wildcats, students and staff were told to relax in the comfiest clothes: pajamas!
Day 4: Safari Hunt
Prepping for the football game on Friday, the theme of safari hunt was chosen as Dallastown is searching for a dub. Students and staff were told to wear either safari gear or camo.
Day 5: Blue & White
The last and final day of spirit week closes with a bang of Dallastown’s colors: blue and white. Students from ninth grade and 11 grade were asked to wear blue. The 10 and 12 graders wore white, completing our perfect color scheme of Wildcat nation.
“Blue and white was my favorite day because more people seemed to participate,” senior Lindsay Lehman said.
On Friday, Sept. 27 at 2 p.m., DAHS hosted its 2024 Homecoming Pep Rally.
This has been the first Homecoming Pep Rally since before Covid. So students were excited to represent their class for the first time at the High School.
Throughout the week, points were tallied from Spirit days; the more a class participates, the more a class earns in points.
This will not be the only Pep Rally of the year, this will be an all-year competition to see which DAHS is the best class ever.
The Pep Rally started with a game of heads, shoulders, and cups. This included students and staff going head to head testing their reflexes and reaction time, and seeing who would grab the cup first.
The Homecoming Court was introduced and model walked out of the doors with their preferred theme songs.
They were then split into four groups, two boys and two girls, to compete in a relay race.
The race included picking up all the football gear scattered across the gym, sledding on an air mattress across the floor, shuffling with a volleyball between their legs, and finally, using a plunger and scooter to row themselves to the finish.
The biggest and most important part of the pep rally was to see which class would come out on top with the most spirit.
At the beginning of the pep rally, the class of 2025 held the spirit stick, so the question was will they keep it or will another class rise above their spirit and take it from them?
One by one the class cheered and screamed to try and prove their class was the most spirited.
At the end of the first round, the judges decided there was a tie between the class of 27 and 25.
So the final competition was between the two classes, the judges wanted to see which class was the most spirited.
The sophomores started and the seniors followed.
Once the judges were done conversing, it was determined that the class of 2027 was the winner and took the spirit stick from the class of 2025.
It was a great way to get the spirit high for the Homecoming game later that night.
Scroll below to see snapshots from the Pep Rally!
The annual Powder Puff game is usually held on the Wednesday before Homecoming. Unfortunately due to the unfortunate weather, it was delayed until Oct. 21.
Powder Puff includes a game of flag football between the underclassmen and the upperclassmen girls at DAHS and a cheer performance from senior guy athletes during halftime.
Dallastown was saddened this year by the news that Powder Puff could not take place at its normal time, but still glad that they can participate even if it’s a month later.
“PowderPuff was postponed because it had rained for days, including the day that PowderPuff was scheduled for. While the weather cleared up in the early evening, it ended up raining again throughout the night. Because many of the players are members of fall sports teams, it was not worth the potential injury risk to play the game in the rain,” Student Council Advisor Mrs. Huyett states.
This year’s powder puff ended very differently than past years. The normal game ended in a tie, which caused the referees to create a tiebreaker.
Both teams selected three girls to kick a field goal, and the team with the most field goals would win.
Unfortunately, even after the tiebreaker, the game remained tied. The next step in breaking it was selecting one of the three girls who had kicked the field goals to kick again, and they would have to move back yards for each kick.
Freshman Alyssa Mahoney scored the winning field goal for the underclassmen team. Leaving the score 25-24 for the underclassmen.
Check out the gallery of Powder Puff pictures, despite the delay, the Wildcats showed awesome enthusiasm and sportsmanship!
Anticipation awaits for Dallastown’s most exciting game of the season: Homecoming Game. On Sept. 27, Dallastown went against one of their biggest opponents Central York and lost in overtime 28-27.
Before the game began, the 2024 Homecoming court was formally introduced and accompanied by parents and family.
Dallastown Wildcats and Central Panthers held out a close game throughout the night, within the first half Dallastown held the lead.
During halftime, Dallastown Stadium congratulated Michael Scott and Julie Cioffi as 2024’s Homecoming King and Queen.
“I was honored to be Hoco Queen. It really meant a lot to me to have so many supporters. It was crazy knowing that I made enough of an impact that caused even those who only knew me from being on the announcements to vote for me,” Cioffi states.
In the second half of the game, Dallastown and Central kept an incredibly close competition. The game had to go into overtime. But in the end, the score resulted in a victory for Central. Making this game the first and only regular season loss for the Wildcats.
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