Year after year, Green Hope High School continues its weeklong celebration of homecoming. Events such as the traditional spirit week, pep rally, homecoming football game and homecoming dance are carried out every year to celebrate this annual culmination of school spirit.
For the 2023-2024 school year the spirit week themes, determined by the student council, included a variety of different categories, from dressing up as movie characters to even teachers just to name a few. In order to receive a ticket for Friday’s pep rally, students were encouraged to participate in spirit week.
Beginning on Monday, students participated in Duo Day, where they could match their outfits with a friend, or they could dress up as their favorite duo from an iconic piece of media.
On Tuesday was Jersey Day, where students could wear their favorite jersey from any sports team, including football, soccer and hockey.
Wednesday was Barbenheimer Day, which capitalized on the summer movie craze of the films Barbie and Oppenheimer. This allowed students to either wear pink or black for Barbie and Oppenheimer, respectively, and even to dress up as the characters as well.
On Thursday, students and teachers participated in Student-Teacher Swap Day, where students and teachers swapped styles with each other.
Finally, on Friday, spirit week came to a close with color war, where each grade level wore a different color shirt to show school spirit. The freshmen wore maroon, the sophomores wore green, the juniors wore white and the seniors wore black.
School spirit week crescendoed to the annual pep rally on Friday afternoon, where GH fall sports teams were highlighted for their accomplishments. Friday night ended in the annual homecoming football game, which was against Green Level, where Green Hope won 21-7.
On Saturday, homecoming week concluded with the homecoming dance. While the school has organized homecoming activities, many students prefer to celebrate homecoming with their own traditions like dressing up, taking pictures, dining out at local restaurants or even attending parties.
It is important for high schoolers because it’s a way for students and staff to come together and celebrate our school. It’s also a good way to get the school’s pride going and a way to honor our athletes.
— Mr. Harrison Ray
Every year as part of the Homecoming traditions, Green Hope hosts the annual Powderpuff football game on October 18. Powderpuff is a yearly homecoming tradition at Green Hope that allows for the girls to step foot onto the football field to play, while the guys cheerlead on the sideline.
This year Powderpuff kicked off with the senior class, dressed in pink, playing against the freshmen class, dressed in purple. The game was close, but ultimately came down to a senior victory, beating out the freshmen 12-6.
The second game of the night was the sophomore class, sporting black, against the junior class, sporting light blue. Game number two of the night was unlike the previous, as the sophomores scored very early on, with the juniors unable to catch up. The sophomores won the second game of the night against the junior team with a final score of 0-6.
With the senior team and the sophomore team advancing to the finals, the juniors played against the freshmen for the third game to see which team would come in the last two places. The game started off strong for the freshmen, as they scored their first point in the first few minutes of the game. With a halftime score of 6-0, the freshmen team scored once again in the second half, defeating the juniors with a final score of 12-0. The freshmen claimed their place in third amongst the other four teams, while the juniors sadly took fourth place overall.
Finally, the seniors faced off with the sophomores to determine the winner of the 2023-2024 Powderpuff game. After an intense final match, with both teams each scoring, the seniors beat the sophomores at the last second of the game, with a final score of 12-6.
This put the sophomores at second place overall, and the seniors as the winners of the 2023-2024 Green Hope Powderpuff game.
Green Hope High’s homecoming football game transpired on Oct. 21, and commemorated a week full of school spirit.
The game was delayed due to lighting in the area, causing the game time back to 8:10 from the original 7:00 kickoff.
Once the game started, the Green Hope offense started fast, on the third offensive play of the game, Josiah Moore (‘24) took a direct snap and took it 67 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown. The Falcons then went for a two-point conversion but got stopped by the Gators.
The Falcon offense continued to roll, with five minutes and forty-three seconds left in the first quarter and Green Hope leading the Gators 6-0. Moore took another direct snap and got into the endzone from 22 yards out, breaking two tackles while getting to the right side. This time, Green Hope was able to convert the two-point try, with Moore running straight through the middle for the score.
In the second quarter, Moore scored his third touchdown, a one-yard blast into the end zone. John Ryan Bartle (‘24) kicked the extra point to give the Falcons the 21-0 lead.
Moore continued his stellar season with 146 rushing yards, giving him 1030 yards on the season, good for second in the conference. He also punched in his 13th rushing touchdown, the second-best tally in the conference.
At halftime, the homecoming court was announced, with seniors Jane Li and Vishal Krishna being named homecoming queen and king respectively.
The Gators answered back with a touchdown in the 3rd quarter on a 69-yard touchdown run by Green Level quarterback Gavin Jones (‘24) to make the score 21-7.
Except for the one touchdown run by Jones, the Green Hope defense stymied the Gator offense. Charlie Deeb (‘24) led the Falcon defense, with three sacks, three tackles for losses, four quarterback pressures, six assists and three third-down stops.
In an interview with the GH Falcon, Deeb said of his performance, “I think this was one of my best games of my football career. Our entire defensive line stepped up and we had our best collective game as a d-line.” Deeb also emphasized the importance of having leaders on the defensive line. Deeb continued, “Having two team captains Michael Schifano and Brian Chege as well as Luccas Soares on the d-line really helped us get stops on Green Level’s offense.”
The defense held the Gators out of the end zone for the remainder of the game, and the 21-7 score held giving the Falcons their first conference win.
The football team will play their final game of the year on Friday, Oct. 27 against Apex High School on senior night.
On Oct. 20, Green Hope High School hosted a tailgate event the evening before the homecoming football game.
This tailgate is in honor and celebration of a school friend and classmate Sam Dare.
The tailgate offered many different stands and activities, including those by big sponsors of the school and even Green Hope clubs. Some of those included were Anthony’s Air Service, Bovenizer and Baker Orthodontics, Chick-fil-A at Stonecreek Village, Dorcas, Habitat for Humanity, Moe’s Southwest Grill, NC Farm Bureau Insurance and Piada Italian street food. These stands helped bring popularity to the event and students were especially attracted to Moes, the Green Hope merchandise stand, the ABC Boost stand, Green Hope Swim Stand (their baked goods were a hit) and the raffle station-which gave out Lululemon gift cards, Apple gift card and gift baskets. In a typical tailgate fashion, there were games of cornhole, a chalk competition (judged by the GH Dance Team), a DJ and face painting. Other stands included the Green Hope Soccer stand which sold flags, the Green Hope Volleyball stand which sold pompoms, the Green Hope Cheerleader stand which held pumpkin decorating and the Falcon Frenzy stand which passed out remembrance rags.
Green Hope High School’s tailgate was specialized in many ways that made it fun for the students. The entrance of the tailgate sported GH’s new mascot, Phoebe the Falcon (if she wasn’t dancing) and the Chick-fil-A cow, Freedom, to take a fun picture with. Also in attendance were the Green Hope Dance team and the Green Hope Band, which provided entertaining acts for students and parents. Most stands were occupied by students and faculty affiliated with the school which brought Falcon community closer together.
The organizer of the Green Hope High School tailgate was Becci Monge, a mother of two Green Hope Falcons. Mrs. Monge put a lot of work into the tailgate and enjoyed seeing people show up and take part in the tailgate stating, “The tailgate is good for Green Hope because it brings together the community, philanthropy, educators, commerce, parents and students! Everyone enjoyed the activities and loved the DJ game ‘Name that Tune’!” Monge also mentions “I think it went well for our first one, but I think the next tailgate will be better!” Though the tailgate brought the GH community closer together, it went even further, uniting the greater community. The raffle tickets were given to those who bought canned food for food drives and all the extra food from the stands was given to local police departments. Habitat for Humanity and Dorcas also used their donations for beneficial causes.
Tyler Herrick (‘25) is a student who manned the Habitat for Humanity stand at the tailgate. At his station, people got to paint rocks. Herrick says the rocks help Habitat, “rocks were put in the gardens of homes that we build to add a personal touch.” The rocks are used in front of the built homes and this stand was a hit! Herrick says, “We didn’t charge, kind of defeats the purpose of spreading awareness and partnering with a nonprofit.”
The Booster Club and parents worked hard to put the tailgate together and the results paid off. The school had a fun time getting together and enjoyed the time they had outside of the building. The tailgate illuminated Green Hope’s focus on the community, and after the first tailgate, Falcons are looking forward to more.
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