Every year, Freedom Area School District hosts its annual homecoming weekend. The weekend starts on Friday at school with the annual homecoming pep rally. The Homecoming court was introduced to the district’s students, and the court then performed a dance to a mashup of various popular songs.

Next, was the Homecoming dance on Friday night, which usually takes place in the cafeteria. This year, however, because of COVID-19, the dance was held partly in the cafeteria and partly outside in the cafeteria parking lot. Students were required to wear masks when inside, but were not required to wear a mask outside. The dance was also limited to 250 tickets being sold due to the school trying to limit the number of students because of the virus. There was also food and refreshments at the dance. Overall, the dancing, cornhole, music and hanging out with friends made the night one to remember.

Starting in 2015, Freedom Area School District began their now annual homecoming festival. This year’s Homecoming festival and game took place on Saturday, Oct. 2. The festival started in the morning with a parade that highlighted the year’s seniors on Homecoming Court. This year’s girls on court included Skylar Dethomas, Taylor DiMarzio, Olivia Evans, Cadence Gorajewski, Madison Hill, Jessica Majors, Sara Mengel, Renae Mohrbacher, Madison Rhodes and Grace White. The boys on the court included Kinsley Aswani, Max Bozza, Tristen Clear, Caleb Falk, Braeden Geibel, Jay Hessler, Carter Huggins, Joshua Pail, Carter Slowinski and Joshua Yeck. The fall sports teams were also included in the parade as well as the band and the cheerleaders. 

After the parade, many clubs and organizations set up booths, sold food and showcased information about their organizations and raised money. This year’s boys on the homecoming court participated in a dunk tank where people had the opportunity to dunk each one of them in water. 

After the festival, the homecoming ceremony began. Here, each member of the homecoming court was once again announced and introduced to the crowd. Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for: the crowning of the homecoming king and queen. The announcers first revealed this year’s Homecoming King, which was Aswani.

  “I was so shocked to be picked for king because I only started to come to Freedom in eighth grade, and all the others on the court are awesome people too. I just want to say thank you to everyone who voted for me,” said Aswani.

The announcers then revealed that the Homecoming Queen was Jessica Majors.

“I was in complete shock when I heard Kyler Brown [the announcer] say my name. I felt so honored to be chosen because the other girls on court are all very special and unique to the Freedom community and have contributed in many ways throughout the years. It was an experience that will last a lifetime,” Majors said. 

After the ceremony, the football game began. The Bulldogs took on the Laurel Spartans, but they were outplayed by the Spartans and fell 48-0. After the game, the weekend ended with a bonfire on the practice field between the middle school and the high school and with a fireworks show over the middle school.