Cole County R-1 High School students will be symbolically turning their hallways into highways the week of Feb. 12 for this year's student-selected homecoming theme, "Roadtrip to Russellville."
Sean Lovelace, Student Leadership sponsor and math teacher, said Student Leadership developed the road trip theme, because they could think of five fun dress up days to fit the occasion.
Movie Star Monday will allow students to dress up like a California celebrity. To the South, Tuesday will bring the students to Louisiana to show of their "redneck" or Mardi Gras attire. Students will pull out their heavy coats and head to Alaska for Winter Wednesday, then slip into their summer wear for a quick turnaround to Florida for Tropical Thursday. The road trip ends back in Russellville for the Olympics, when the students will wear their school colors, blue and white.
The classes will be awarded points for each student that dresses up, with additional points for the best dressed of each day. The tallies will be added to the scores from the school Olympics to determine the winning class, which will be announced during the homecoming game at 6 p.m. Feb. 16 with the boys basketball junior varsity and varsity against Chamois.
Homecoming banners and flags will be due Feb. 13 and floats will be due Feb. 15. The school Olympics will take place Friday.
The annual student vs. staff basketball game will give the students a chance to take down the undefeated staff members. "The students are ready to (win), and they always think that they will, but we usually come out ahead," Lovelace said. "We never rub it in their faces at all," he said with a chuckle.
Queen candidates
Homecoming queen candidates include Ally Harris, Anna Koestner, Brooke Kremer, Olivia Percival and Sydney Robertson.
Harris is the daughter of Tim and Stephanie Harris. She will be escorted by Laughlin McKinnon, son of Melissa Mincher and Shane McKinnon. Harris is president of Sigma Chi Lambda (Student Changing Lives). She is also a two-year member and vice president of the National Honor Socity. She has been a member of Student leadership and FFA for three years, a basketball and softball player four years and ran track two years.
Koestner is the daughter of Todd and Sheri Koestner. She will be escorted by Kyle Brautigam, son of Kevin and Melissa Brautigam. Koestner is a two-year NHS member. She has been in Student Leadership and track and field four years, a basketball player three years and the student body president one year.
Kremer is the daughter of Michaele Kremer and Randy Kremer. She will be escorted by Hayden Kueffer, son of Brian and Jessica Kueffer. Kremer is a two-year NHS and Future Farmers of America member and has been in Student Leadership one year. She has played softball four years and basketball two years. She also served as a basketball team manger four years.
Percival is the daughter of Rick and LaTonya Percival. She will be escorted by Dalyn Hegerfield, son of Robert and Rhonda Hegerfield. Percival is a member of FBLA, Student Leadership, the multicultural club and Sigma Chi Lambda. She has also played softball four years.
Robertson is the daughter of Curt and Michelle Robertson. She will be escorted by Beau Bryant, son of Jeff and Linda Bryant. Robertson is a two-year NHS member and basketball player. She also has run cross country and track four years.