Students and teachers at FC attended a rally, Oct. 26, in preparation for the 28th annual homecoming football game against Immanuel High later that day. With a week full of homecoming pageants and dress up days at school, students have been anticipating the Friday football game and conclusion of homecoming events.

The football game that was scheduled for next week was cancelled due to the opposing team’s early end to their season. As a result, senior night for the football players will now take place before the homecoming game. Senior night will serve to thank and honor the senior football players: Brandon McCormick, Mckay Mohun, Dominic Mendoza and JP Caprioglio. The start of the game is 7:30 p.m., but a few homecoming festivities, including the introduction of homecoming princesses, will begin before the game, at 7 p.m.

FC will also host Farmer Brothers to run the concessions, which they have done all year long for home games. Farmer Brothers will be selling grilled hamburgers, chicken strips, fries, hot dogs, carne beef tacos, nachos, crispy chicken salads, chili-cheese fries and beef burritos.

Homecoming floats will be on display at the game; and the homecoming queen and king will be crowned at half time. With a theme of “Once Upon a Homecoming,” the freshman class chose Peter Pan, and the sophomores selected The Wizard of Oz. The juniors decided on Alice in Wonderland, and the seniors chose Shrek.

The school-wide rally took place from 12:10-12:40 p.m., right before lunch. To start the rally off, all the princess, queen, and king nominees were called up to the front along with the entire football team. These students were then told to come up with a dance with their group to a specific song and had a few minutes to practice. While they were practicing, the cheerleaders threw miniature footballs up into the crowd. After that, senior Jordan Boudreau and the cheerleaders led the school in a few cheers to prepare everyone for the game.

Queen nominee Jenna Orcutt, ’13, enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the rally and thought the rally was fun because everyone had the chance to take part in it.

“I really enjoyed being part of the rally today,” Orcutt said. “It was a lot of fun. Everybody got involved and normally that doesn’t happen. It was really fun to get the court and all the cheerleaders involved and pump up the crowd with cheers for tonight.”

Orcutt is also excited for the football game as well as all the homecoming events.

“I’m looking forward to everything about homecoming,” Orcutt said. “I’m excited to see the guys play, all the floats, and homecoming nominees. It’s just going to be a really great night. I love our float; it may be small, but we got a float done. It’s really cute; and I’m just really happy that it all came together.”

Football player Caleb Nale, ’14, also appreciated the chance to participate in the rally when he danced with his teammates. He is looking forward to the final game.

“I’m really excited for the homecoming game,” Nale said. “This is my first homecoming as a football player so I’m looking forward to it. I just want to be able to do my job during the game and make my school proud. Also, the rally today was really fun. I got to show off my dance skills in the game we played, so overall it was a good time.”

Though she didn’t participate in the rally, senior Taylor Neufeld enjoyed watching her fellow classmates dance at the rally. She’s also happy that she was able to catch one of the footballs that the cheerleaders were throwing.

“I thought the rally was fun,” Neufeld said. “I thought seeing everyone dance was cool and awkward at the same time. My favorite part of the rally was when the cheerleaders threw footballs into the crowd and I caught one.”

Neufeld also has high hopes for the senior class float, even though she was too busy to help build it.

“I’m most looking forward to seeing FC win and to see who gets crowned homecoming king and queen,” Neufeld said. “I think our class’ homecoming float looks really good, even though I wasn’t able to help with it. I think it looks amazing.”

Zach Jakusz, ’14, also thought that watching his classmates dance at the rally was very entertaining and is excited for the football game.

“I’m looking forward to winning, because I know there is such a big rivalry between FC and Immanuel, and I think it would be great to win,” Jakusz said. “I haven’t actually seen the junior class float, but I still think we’ll probably win.”

Senior Brandon Porter is more excited about cheering on his friends in their last homecoming game than the actual homecoming competitions.

“I’m looking forward to the football game,” Porter said. “I’m really just excited to seeing our guys play, because its cool seeing our seniors play for their last homecoming game. Even if we don’t win I know we are going to play an awesome game.”

Porter has high hopes for his class float, believing that they have a better shot in the float competition than last year.

“I definitely feel pretty good about our float compared to our homecoming floats in the past,” Porter said. “There was a lot more effort put into it this year. I don’t know if we’ll win, but I know we definitely have a chance at winning.”

Principal Todd Bennett is looking forward to the homecoming game, because he believes that it serves as a good time for the entire FC community to gather together.

“I’m always excited about homecoming,” Bennett said. “I’m looking forward to the chance for alumni and current students to get together to celebrate Fresno Christian. It’s really nice that we’re playing Immanuel, another Christian school.”

Bennett thinks the rally is a good ending to a week full of homecoming activities.

For more information about the homecoming game, read the Oct. 11 article, Homecoming festivities scheduled, court nominated. For more information about the homecoming court, read the Oct. 25 article, Anticipated pageant showcases king dance (VIDEO), the Oct. 24 article, Queen nominees honored to participate in pageant (VIDEO), or the Oct. 23 article, Princess Pageant fuels homecoming excitement (VIDEO).