Simpson Residence hopes to reclaim its prized homecoming trophy this year, and the men have spent months preparing for it.
“I started working on homecoming over the summer,” Simpson head resident assistant and senior Joe Vankat said. “If I see something cool on social media and think it might be cool in a Mock Rock, I’ll save it to a file and come back to it later.”
Vankat said Mock Rock preparation starts ramping up after the Student Activities Board announces the theme, because the team leaders can work on theme-specific music and choreography. This year’s Disney theme brought opportunities for a creative and unique Mock Rock performance, according to Vankat.
“The night the theme was released, we got together and spent probably three hours ironing out our music for Mock Rock,” Vankat said.
Simpson’s Mock Rock leadership team puts in several hours of work a day outside of regular practice time, according to Vankat. Leaders are assigned tasks such as mixing music, helping with stunts, and creating choreography.
The last team to win homecoming that was not Simpson was the Off-Campus Coalition in 2022.
“Part of why we want to win is honoring our friends who have graduated,” Simpson resident and junior Liam Brennan said. “Simpson has a three-year win streak so far, so everyone at Hillsdale right now has never seen a homecoming where Simpson has lost.”
Junior Charlie Taylor, one of the men choreographing Simpson’s Mock Rock dance, said the entire Simpson team is working from 8–10 p.m. every weeknight in the three weeks leading up to the event. Most of the choreographers have limited experience with dance choreography when they first start, according to Taylor.
“The guys will try to find things online and research and peruse, seeing if there’s anything that would work,” Taylor said. “But sometimes we just kind of spitball it.”
Taylor said Simpson freshmen have been motivated during homecoming preparation this year, which has paid off in their Mock Rock performance.
“I feel like this is the most ambitious Mock Rock we’ve done yet,” Taylor said. “Homecoming is a crazy time commitment, and maybe kind of stupid sometimes, but we live for it.”
In addition to Mock Rock preparation, Simpson RAs assigned other men to lead the rest of the homecoming activities. Sophomore Joseph Shipp and freshman John Henry Lindley were the main designers and painters of Simpson’s winning banner, which they unveiled at banner drop at midnight on Monday.
“The idea works great for Simpson, since it quotes ‘Cars’ to reiterate our very classy response to the homecoming trophy being stolen last year,” Shipp said. “Once we had the idea, it all came down to time and attention to detail.”
Vankat said Simpson’s trivia team studied everything they could about Disney for Wednesday’s trivia competition.
“They just find any trivia questions they possibly can online about anything related to Disney,” Vankat said. “Disney World, Walt Disney the guy, Disney Movies, Disney Channel, and anything else they can find.”
Brennan said volunteering during homecoming week is a rewarding experience for the dorm and helps the men build a stronger community outside of academics.
“It’s a great time as Christian men to serve people,” Brennan said. “One of the critiques I’ve heard is that Simpson only does volunteering during homecoming. That is true for some people, but what I’ve found is that usually people love it so much that they continue volunteering throughout the year.”
