It’s back to the grindstone for nearly 800 students and staff members as Homecoming 2017 is in the history books for another year.

“Light Up the Eagles” was the week’s theme.

Many students said they enjoyed the student council-sponsored events which ranged from wing-eating to PowderPuff football to spirit days.

The highlight of the week’s event was the naming of the king and queen during the Sept. 29 football game.

Haley Hartley was named queen, with Jhordan Mayo being named king during half-time of the LCHS/RCB football game.  They were presented their crowns by 2016 King Nate Frazier and Queen Jaclyn Kovach. Senior princesses included Abby Watson, Braylen Hughes, Claire Moneypenny and Miranda Gettings.  Senior king candidates were Nick Gould, Hunter Mitchell, Levi Brown and Cole Barker.

Junior Princesses were Tiffany Curtis and Maria Bibiloni.

Sophomore Princesses were Lindsey Wiant and Kassie Hughes.

Freshman Princesses were Taylor Boggs and Emma Starett.

The week started off with float-decorating, banner painting and PowderPuff practices.

The Juniors won the float and banner competitions with Seniors winning PowderPuff.

Students participated in daily spirit days which included ‘Merica Monday, Tie-Dye Tuesday, Wild West Wednesday, Theatrical Thursday and Fired Up Friday.  The juniors and seniors split participation points for those days with freshmen and sophomores finishing third and fourth respectively.

It was a mixed batch of wins among the four classes for the lunchtime competitions.  The competitions included boot lacing, doughnut eating, egg tossing, wing eating and bubble blowing.

Mr. Marc Smith’s junior advisory class won for the hurricane relief efforts.  LCHS brought in more than $600 in change collection through advisory classes.

For the first time since moving to the new facility, students had the chance to attend a girls’ soccer match during school. The girls fell to Elkins 2-3.  The boys’ played immediately following the girls and won their match 8-0.

The highlight of the school events was the annual ‘thuse’ in the LCHS gym.  Many teachers said it was one of the most enthusiastic pep rallies LCHS has had with the juniors coming out on top.

The Class of 2019 defended its title earning the coveted “Spirit Stick” for the second-straight year.  The juniors were paced with strong finishes in daily spirit days as well as the lunch time competitions.  The seniors finished in a close second being paced with winning PowderPuff for the third-straight year.

For the first time in recent history, students had the chance to attend all Homecoming events free for perfect attendance.  The “30 for 30” program monitored student attendance and rewarded students with free admission to soccer, football and the dance.

Mr. Derek Lambert said LCHS saw a marked ‘improvement’ in attendance going from 94 percent to 98 percent for this time period from 2016 to 2017.

The culminating activity for Homecoming was the annual dance which was Sat., Sept. 30 from 8-11.

Student Council members worked on the week’s events several months in advance.