Prepare for togas and olive wreaths on campus as dorms, members of greek life, and other coalitions compete for the title of homecoming champion.
The Student Activities Board announced the “Ancient Olympics” theme Tuesday in an Instagram post, according to junior SAB promo team lead John Schaefer.
“When we decide themes, they are normally very contentious and we’ll argue about it a lot,” junior and SAB media team lead Jack Cote said. “This year for our entire reading day meeting all of us were pretty unanimous on every single theme.”
Homecoming teams will compete Sept. 18 to 23 in events like banner drop, trivia night, and mock rock, with the top three finishers earning points towards their homecoming scores. At the end of the week, the team with the most points will take home the victory.
Junior and Niedfeldt head resident assistant Harrison Layman said he thinks a specific theme like this will force teams to think outside the box.
“I think it provides a lot of opportunities for creativity,” Layman said. “How can you take it and use it in a way that’s not the immediate thing that jumps to everyone’s mind?”
Layman said he is interested to see how far SAB takes the theme for events like trivia.
“Are we just gonna have a bunch of classics kids and they’re like, ‘Alright, this is what we’re answering questions on’ or are they going to kind of loosen it up a little bit?” he said.
Students have taken events like Mock Rock in surprising directions before, according to junior and SAB events team lead Josiah Jagoda, who said while it’s hard to say what will happen this year, he thinks certain ideas will be popular.
“I would imagine there will be some togas involved,” Jagoda said. “I could see a one-on-one wrestling match or maybe a crowning at the end.”
Jagoda said if any frustrations arise, students should remember faculty – not SAB team members – judge the events.
“It’s a very Hillsdale-type theme,” Layman said. “I can’t think of very many other schools who would be like ‘Yeah, our theme for this thing is the Ancient Olympics.’ It’s very on brand in that regard so I’m excited to see what everyone does.”
