Piute High School held its annual Homecoming week from Monday, January 23 to Saturday, January 28. Homecoming is always a week that high school students look forward to. Dress-up days, fun sports games and a dance to conclude the week are all highlights of the Homecoming experience.
Dress-Up Days and Assemblies
The dress-up days are some of the most liked events of Piute Homecoming. Students get to dress under a certain theme and try to be the best dressed.
Rival Day
Monday’s dress-up day was the beloved Rival Day. One day in the school year students gather up t-shirts, hoodies or uniforms from their rival schools and wear them the whole day. Gear from Panguitch, Wayne, Milford, Byce Valley, Valley and some more can be seen with the students of Piute High.
Along with the Rival Day, Piute held an assembly Monday to play games and get the students excited for the next five days. The student council gathered two tables for a game of table surfing*, and a blindfold and some chairs for a game of musical chairs. All grades and some faculty members participated in the entertaining games. Students and faculty enjoyed both games, which became favorites in the school.
Character Day
Tuesday was Dress like a Character Day. Any character worked. An animated character from a movie, you got it. A superhero, well Piute was in good hands. Along with the dress-up day, Piute held another assembly. This one, however, was a speech about resilience. The speaker talked to the students about his motorcycle accident and how it changed his life forever. His story was inspiring. It taught students to get back up on their feet and keep going, no matter what incident has happened. He also taught that anyone could push forward and get better.
Adam Sandler Day
Wednesday was Dress like Adam Sandler Day. Students wore baggy t-shirts and basketball shorts along with long socks and a backward cap. While the students and faculty spent their day dressing like Adam Sandler’s many famous characters, Piute High School’s cheer team went to UVU for the first Cheer Competition under UHSAA guidelines.
“Dress to Impress” Day
While the week was starting to come to a close, the Homecoming basketball game would start Thursday night. Thursday morning, students dressed to impress. Some of the senior girls showed up to school in their sparkly and elegant prom dresses from the year before. Other students showed up in their best dress or some of the boys showed up in suits.
The Homecoming assembly also drew the student body into the auditorium. Five senior couples showed off their choreography and dancing skills to get some votes. In the next challenge, the boys had to change a plastic baby’s diaper quickly and make it clean. After the groans of the male contestants died down, they received a new challenge to braid their partner’s hair. The girls were up next in having to tie a tie. Both boys and girls performed well and gained some points.
Up next was a quick game of charades. Each contestant drew a name of a teacher at Piute and had to act them out to their partner. Contestants had to be quick and give an accurate representation of the teacher that the other would catch onto. After this a race began, they then had to answer questions about Piute High School. The senior homecoming court candidates then had to unscramble a name of one of the students in the high school and race to stand next to that person. The final game was a “do you know your partner” game. The competitors were asked a question and one had to guess their partner’s answer.
Piute Pride Day
On Friday students dressed in their Piute pride. The girls basketball team dressed in old cheer uniforms, and other students could be found wearing their T-Bird blue shirts or other Piute High School gear. The boys basketball team played against Escalante on the T-Birds’ home court. During this game the girls basketball team stayed in the cheer uniforms and took the place of the cheerleaders. The girls team also performed at halftime. The girls basketball team had an excellent performance. This particular basketball game was a fast one, and Coach Jessen even let some of the younger boys come in and play for a while. The game ended with Piute winning with a score of 73 to 19.
Meanwhile the wrestlers headed over to Wayne High School for divisionals. McKray Gayler, Monty Morrison and Jesse James all took 1st place in their weight categories. Daxon Morrill, Boedy Morrison and Jayce Merriam took 2nd place. Josh Bowles, Trevor Pearson and Kade Severe each took 4th place. Corbin Springer, Carter Sudweeks, and Zeb Bunker took 5th in their weight categories. A total of 12 boys from Piutes’s wresting team qualified for State. McKray Gayler and Monty Morrison also received the Outstanding Wrestler award. Only two of these awards were given: one to the lower weight class and one to the heavyweight class, and both went home with the Piute wrestlers.
Piute Homecoming Game
The Homecoming game was a girls game against Valley. For the first quarter, Valley was leading 14 to 10. During the second half of the game Piute turned up in the heat and the game became close with a score of 22 to 20 Valley. With only three seconds left in the quarter, Tera Morgan was given the opportunity to tie the game by making two foul shots. The first shot touched the rim then fell inside the hoop. Her second shot swished in, nothing but net. With these extra points, Piute caught Valley for a tie at halftime.
Halftime Entertainment
During halftime the Homecoming court was announced. Bryce Lee and Tera Morgan were the 2nd Attendants, and Monty Morrision and Saundra Holmes were 1st Attendants. Piute High School’s 2023 Homecoming king and queen were Daxon Morrill and Cooper Fautin. All were presented with a sash. The girls also received a rose and crown. The boys were given a bag of candy and Dax was given a gold chain necklace that said, “King.”
One of the Piute Homecoming traditions is that a group of boys, freshman through sophomore, get together and take the cheerleaders’ positions for the night. They are called the Thundermen. The Thundermen can be ball players, wrestlers or not involved in a sport — all are welcome. The cheerleaders spend a few days teaching the Thundermen a dance to perform at halftime. The boys then go out and shine. Every year the Thundermen do a kickline and some jumps. After halftime the Thunderman took the spot of the cheerleaders on the sideline and called out some cheers for the last half of the game.
By the end of the 3rd quarter, Piute had taken the lead with a score of 39 to 31. Cooper Fautin made the first basket of the 4th quarter with an assist from Kaycee Gleave. With only three-and-a-half minutes left on the clock, Piute was ahead by 10 points. Despite the Valley Buffalos’ best efforts, the Lady T-Birds kept a lead of 5-9 points for the rest of the game. Piute won the game with an end score of 49 to 58.
Homecoming Dance
The Piute Homecoming dance commenced on Saturday. It was a semi-formal theme. Piute’s student council was in charge, setting up decorations and being the DJs. Girls came dressed in beautiful dresses. Like every Piute dance, students enjoyed many line dances and swing dance songs together.
– by Ari Hurdsman (18) Junction
Feature image caption: The Thundermen. Courtesy Mandy Morrill.
*Editor’s Note: To table surf, a group of students lie on the floor and a table turned upside down is placed on top of them. The students roll over to move the table. One student sits on the upside down table and “surfs.” This is a relay race to see which team can cross the finish line first.
Read about Piute’s 2024 Homecoming here.
Ari Hurdsman – Junction
Ari Hurdsman is a junior journalist at the Byway. She just recently moved to Ephraim, Utah, where she is a freshman at Snow College. She enjoys writing about Piute sports, and she’s really good at it! In her free time, she enjoys singing, dancing, reading and hanging out with friends and family.