It’s Homecoming week and after basically two years of school being online, I decided to interview ⅗ of the Homecoming Court nominees,  asking them questions like ¨Why did you make the decision to run?¨ so the student body has a better understanding of the person they are voting for.  Homecoming allows students to become connected to their school. For some, running for Homecoming Court to meet other students and promote school spirit has become their passion.

Interviewer- Why did you decide to run for homecoming king/queen?

 Reese Le– ¨I ran for this position because I wanted to go into the limo!” (They didn’t have it this year so I guess she lucked out)  ¨I thought we would get a limo but we didn’t….. so…. It’s still fun though.”

Niko Padilla– “It sounded fun honestly, I was just like….. Hoco?….. Okay! Like I wanted to see how far I could go. Because I didn’t even think I was going to do it and then One of my friends (Tommy) was like ….. ¨Bro you should run”…. And I was like on god? and here I am.”  

Kimberly Skaggs– “Honestly I remember my freshman and sophomore year, all these people doing all these activities (the Hoco games) and I just wanted to be like involved, I thought it was super cool to be on the Court and be involved in the school the way they were, so I always try my best to stay involved with all the activities we do now….. And also being on the Court not even the winning aspects but just being on the Court I believe makes you more of a role model and that’s what I want to be… I do want to have a positive impact on the school and for the future upperclassmen. Like I want them to look up to me and understand like a view of what high school should be (and how it is essentially what you make it). Like you should stay involved, be nice to other people and those sorts of things.”

Jason Choe– “I’m running for Hoco because I feel like I want to be known for something kinda huge, like it is a huge opportunity to be able to be the Hoco king and it’s like a great event, one of my favorite events in high school, and also it’s just really fun to interact with other people in different grades, having them talk to you and you vise versa when trying to get their votes and stuff.  Plus them coming up to you and saying things like, “ I love your posters” “ I voted for you” “Vote for Choe”, it’s all just so like motivating…. it’s just so nice… I love the social aspect of it.”

Dylan Floyd– “I ran for Homecoming because I thought it would be something fun to do and I knew that my mom when she was younger she was her school’s Homecoming queen (senior year) so I thought it would be cool if like tried to do the same thing like almost bring it down another generation.¨ 

Ciera Duran– “I ran because I wanna be involved in the school anyway I can and I love being like a positive aspect of like Santiago high school and I want to represent my school in a positive way so as Homecoming queen I believe that you have to be like friendly, upbeat, positive. I just want to spread positivity any way I can.¨ 

What qualifies you for this position? 

Niko Padilla– “I am in varsity xc/ track, also when I told my grandma I was gonna run she get so excited for me and finally I believe I have experience in Court because both of my parents were Hoco King ( ‘92) and Hoco queen (‘93) their senior year of high school.¨

Reese Le- “ I want to get more involved in school by doing more activities like this and others say that I am unintentionally funny.¨

Kimberly Skaggs– “I feel like I stay really involved in the school, so my sophomore year I was super involved with clubs, I did Key Club, HOSA, NHS, and Link Crew Club, and after sophomore year that made I want to stay even more involved so I joined link crew my junior and senior year. (President Senior Year) where  I help with freshmen and help stay connected with them. And guide them towards what their high school experience should be like. I did cheer too and I was captain of the JV team my sophomore year and this year I’m one of the captains of the varsity team.¨

Jason Choe– “I’m very social, I’m out there. I like to be a leader, I think my qualities are like making new friends, being social, easy to communicate with and I’m like the underdog you know. I’m also in link crew and I’m just an alpha.”

Dylan Floyd– “I think I’m well known by a lot of people, I think I’ve always felt like I’ve had the quality of making people comfortable when I’m around them kinda just being myself and I thought I was just well known to the point where I could get votes.¨

Ciera Duran– ¨I believe I’m very outgoing, I am spirited, I am friendly, I am always happy, and I am humble/modest.”

  What do you believe are some disadvantages of running for Court?

Reese Le- “ Other people  take you so much more seriously (about winning) than you want to be and because of that it allows people to make inferences on the kind of person you are based on their assumption on other people on the Court.”

Dylan Floyd– ”I think a disadvantage is sometimes it could get like harsh, in the way that there’s a competition. I mean I have no hate for anybody or any of them, but you like also really wanna win, but overall no matter what it’s just a fun thing.¨

What attracted you to this position?

Niko Padilla– “ Reese.”

Jason Choe– “I think what attracted me is like being able to be like…… probably noticed you know, because you’re the only one who’s up there you now and it’s super interactive.”

If elected, what is a way you could contribute? 

Kimberly Skaggs- “I would continue to do my best to be a positive role model and I will  help as many freshman high school experiences be more  fun and engaging for them.”

What part about the Homecoming tradition do you like the best?

 Ciera Duran– ¨It is very impactful because the memories of the dances and the games and things like that are what you end up looking back on when you replay your high school experience. I like the fact that we’re all together and that even when we’re dancing like in the pit, it’s all close and together.¨

Thank You for these candidates for allowing me to interview them! Today is the last day to vote so make sure you vote for your favorite candidate!

(Jasons like count: 11)

Note from the Editor:  This article  was published after the election closed and participants were chosen at random.