Although the word “princess” often conjures up images of civilized royal book-balancers, the homecoming princess pageants gives it a different connotation, as nominees wrestle, slurp and lick in attempts to win votes. The 2009 princess pageant was held in Ground Zero, Oct. 13.

The pageant, which pitted four princess nominees from the freshmen, sophomore and junior classes, is held annually during homecoming week in order for candidates to “strut their stuff” for the student body. Students will vote for the princess in their class on Oct. 16. The results will be announced homecoming night.

This year’s games included “donut on a string,” “musical sardines” and painting with pudding. The classes compete against each other, slipping and sliding in the muck on a sticky tarp.

“I thought the princess pageant was really fun because of the competitive spirit, and we got the chance to get messy,” freshman nominee Maddie Yee said. “When we had to eat the sardines I thought it was going to be disgusting, but they were actually delicious. The donut on a string was my favorite game because it involved eating a powdered donut instead of something gross. I thought that the pageant was going to be worse because I thought we would have to eat more disgusting things.”

While the donut game provided a sigh of relief for those expecting gross-out challenges, junior Kory Thompson says she most enjoyed the aggressive aspects of the event, despite the rain that pushed it into Ground Zero.

“I thought it was fun because we got to push people’s faces into pudding and eat sardines,” Thompson said. “I liked the pageant better last year because it was outside, so we could chase people around and do whatever we wanted to.”

Emcee senior Kayla Haydock says the pageant gives students the opportunity to know the nominees on a different level.

“We hold the princess pageant so people get to know the princess candidates in a different atmosphere,” Haydock said. “Emceeing it gives me a lot more respect for people who have emceed before because it’s kind of scary. But it’s fun to see things close up.”

Despite the sometimes uproarious applause, some members of the audience say they were unimpressed with the spectacle.

“This pageant was a little underwhelming; it was very predictable,” senior Matt Stumpf said. “It seemed very generic like it has been in past years. But it never fails to be entertaining.”

Although the pageant failed to impress some, student leadership has two more opportunities to dazzle students: the queen pageant, which will feature five senior candidates, Oct. 15, which will feature a Western theme, complete with pig wrestling. Check back for an article Oct. 14.

The king pageant will be held Oct. 16, featuring the king dance.

Princess Pageant ’09 from FC Video Productions on Vimeo.

For more information, read the Oct. 6 article, Homecoming redefines Disneyland themes.