Last Friday, StuGo kindly hosted an extremely entertaining Homecoming Pep Assembly. We started off with a warm welcome by our three MC’s: Jared Riley, Naia Curry, and Vanessa Ghosn. We went straight into business with Mr. Bickes, running up to the middle of the gym, announcing the results of each grade’s free dress time. This was calculated by how many students were sent to the office for dress code violations. The class that got the least, would get the most number of free dress days.

The Class of 2023 earned one free dress ticket and can wear it on Monday. Note that we have a $2 free dress on Tuesday to support Chinese Club, Cross Country, and Girls Volleyball, which is available for any student. Classes of 2022 and 2021 earned two days and can wear free dress on Monday and Wednesday. Finally, our classmates of 2020 acquired three full days of free dress- Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We then chanted our class chants, and then our wonderful Spiritline performed.

Mr. Bickes reappeared in the center of the gym to give us a quick reminder that PSAT exams are less than a month away! On October 16, students in grades 9-11 will be taking the PSAT exam. It will not be a half-day; therefore students will not be permitted to leave after the test is over as there will be an assembly that will last throughout the rest of the school day. ACP has kindly invited a hypnotist to do an interactive session with us during the assembly; if you would like to participate, please take a permission slip from the office before the end of the week.

Then, Mr. Bickes moved on to those who were qualified for National Merit. When juniors take the exam, they are enlisted to compete for the National Merit Scholarship. About 1.6 million students in some 22,000 high schools enter the National Merit Scholarship competition annually when they take the PSAT each fall. Mr. Bickes announced four National Merit semifinalists: Jayden Chen, Kazushi Iwamoto, Sharmila Nimbkar, and Orchee Syed! These four students represent the top 0.5% of Arizona’s senior students based on their PSAT score.

After the remarkable announcement, a peculiar call came from Mr. Bickes’s personal cell phone. That caller I.D. was none other than an administrator from Chino Valley, the football team we were competing against that night. They were calling as a challenge of who would win Friday night’s Homecoming football game; we definitely proved them wrong and beat the Cougars by a landslide!

Next, we transitioned into playing a Giant Human Ring Toss game. Our MC’s called up three students from each grade to play. One student would throw one ring to the person who was standing up straight and try to get it over their head. If the ring fell on the floor, the third person will pick it up and hand it back to the thrower. The class who gets all three rings on their neck wins. We started the game with all four classes in the middle of the gym; it ended with the sophomores and the seniors competing head-to-head. Not to our surprise, the seniors won, presenting them as the champions of the Giant Human Ring Toss game.

After the game, we brought it back to the teachers where they had a little bit of a showdown. The Resident Rockets or red team: Mrs. Michaelson, Sra. Berger, Coach Lefevre, and Ms. Bunch battled Mr. Tyler, Mrs. Klauer, and Mrs. Lewendowski in a dance contest. First up, we had the red team who dazzled everyone with their lively performance. Our judges- Mrs. Patterson, Mr. Blueford, and Mrs. Zoller had some very straight-forward opinions, but overall they gave them a solid 8.5 out of 10. The second performers were dressed in black from head-to-toe and showed us a high- energy performance, adding a little surprise of roses. Mrs. Patterson commented that she had no idea how many roses could come out of one’s pocket, and thought that they were channeling their inner Whitney. The judges finally came to an agreement and ranked their performance a solid nine. Both of the performances were fantastic but eventually, the judges gave it to the red team.

Coach Blue took the mic and gave us a little information about football. He quoted that he was big on traditions and starting new things, which is why he asked us to say hello to our new chant for football games. The chant starts out with Coach Blue saying “Fourth Quarter!”, and we say “K’s Up!” With this chant, he hoped to bring back their first Homecoming win ever; which in fact, came true!

Homecoming nominations were presented after; six nominees from each grade were voted for last week and were called up to the center of the gym.

After nominations, the dance team performed with a rigorous routine to the one and only Beyoncé.

As stated before, ACP continues to make strides in the school’s spirit, which is why Student Government decided to switch things up for Battle of the Classes. This year, whenever a class wins an event, like most donations or fun games at the assembly, they will be rewarded with their own class bench. You can write your signature if you’re class wins and is overall, a fantastic idea to boost our ACP school spirit.

The perfect way to end the fun week was the exciting assembly, along with the game and Homecoming. I hope you had a fantastic weekend-  there is only one more week left until fall break, so hang tight!