During the week of October 28 through November 1, Carolina Forest High School celebrated their 27th Homecoming, wrapping it up with a home game against a local rival, Conway.
Since opening its doors in 1997, Homecoming is always something the community and school looks forward to. Homecoming Week starts on a Sunday when students gather together to decorate their grade levels hallway to get ready for a whirl-wind week of events and competitions.
For the 2024 Homecoming, the theme was board games: Freshmen-Monopoly, Sophomores-Jumanji, Juniors-Clue and Seniors-Candy Land.
Throughout the week the school designated theme days accompanied by a grade level chosen game that was held during lunch. Games included musical chairs with a twist, tug o’ war, and bumper balls.
Our Carolina Forest students’ school spirit was phenomenal as many dressed to impress in participating with the school spirit days. The spirit day themes for the week were the following: Monday/First Place Day (Olympic team or favorite sports team); Tuesday/Battleship (Camo); Wednesday/Pink Out; Thursday/Throwback Thursday (Decades Day 50s-90s); Friday/Checkmate (Black Out).
Along with the dress up days and games, another tradition is our Friday pep-rally.
This year’s pep-rally was fantastic. The Varsity Cheer Team put on a spectacular performance showcasing game day cheers along with their competition performance. During the pep-rally, there was a teacher and staff race in inflatables along with a few student games. A tradition at CF is the spirit stick. In order for your grade to win the spirit stick, your grade needs to be the loudest during the rally and show the most school spirit, along with having the most competition points from the week. This year the senior class won the spirit stick!
Senior Jonathan Hidalgo shared, “It was an amazing feeling to hear that my class won the stick. I felt like Lebron James coming back 3-1.”
The school also prides itself on the parade which features class-decorated golf carts, our marching band, JROTC, as well as the Homecoming court. People within the Carolina Forest community line the streets supporting their Panthers and awaiting the candy that is often thrown to spectators.
On Friday night, the Carolina Forest Panthers played the Conway Tigers. The Panthers dominated the game and won 42-0. Although it was a spectacular game, many people were waiting for half time to hear the final Homecoming court winners. After the long-awaited announcement the Homecoming king and queen were crowned: Allison Funderburk won queen and Isaiah Barnes won king.
“I was in a state of shock but was so excited at the same time. It is a true honor to hold this title at Carolina Forest this year,” stated Funderburk.
Barnes shared, “It was very shocking and very exciting at the same time. There were a lot of thoughts running through my head when my name was said. I questioned in my head if he actually called my name or not.”
Congratulations to the rest of our Homecoming Court winners: Senior Prince/Hayden Soles; Senior Princess/ Trinity St. Clair; Junior Prince/Cole Satterwhite; Junior Princess/Brooke Interdonati; Sophomore Prince/Jasziah Fisher; Sophomore Princess/Lilley Palmieri; Freshmen Prince/Cole Guess; Freshmen Princess/Scarlett Trotta.
Homecoming will be a tradition that continues on throughout the years, hopefully bringing alumni back to The Forest to celebrate with fellow Panthers. This year’s Homecoming brought great school spirit to our school that will follow Carolina Forest throughout this school year.
