AHS students embraced the cold weather during Whoopcoming this year, with a no school day, two hour late starts, and an early dismissal. Whoopcoming is similar to Homecoming to highlight high school students in a variety of activities, just in the winter instead of the fall. Some of the highlights from Whoopcoming this year were going to some of the elementaries, an advisory game, a three point contest, a rock, paper, scissors tournament, and, of course, dress up days.
On Monday, January 15th, there was no school due to the bitterly cold weather because the temperature never got above -2℉.
Tuesday, January 16th, was still chilly and school started with a two hour late start. It was a great day for Pajama Day!
Wednesday, January 19th, over 40 Student Senate members, basketball players, cheerleaders, band/choir students, dancers, and wrestlers traveled to Lucia Wallace Elementary and did a craft with the 3rd and 4th graders. They made a little snow globe to color and take home. Also on this day, some students participated in the popular TikTok trend, Rhyme Without Reason, which was the dress up day. This is where you dress up as anything you want and your partner will find something random to rhyme with you. For example, Logan Lentz dressed in pajamas while Daniel Kemna dressed as a banana. Seth Gardalen was Taylor Swift, Ashley Cantu was Tokyo drift, and Faith Zeller dressed as a forklift (operator). Mrs. Spear dressed up as a tear because Mrs. Cassens was not here.
Thursday, January 18th, was Dress Up as the First Letter of Your Name Day. A student example was Sydney Seebecker dressed up as Snow White. Seebecker states, “Whoopcoming is like round two of Homecoming, and I LIVE for these moments.” Also on this day, a handful of Student Senate members traveled to Bryant Elementary and did the snow globe craft with the first graders. School was dismissed at 1 o'clock due to the weather.
Friday was Pink Out and Hat Day. Students could pay $5.00 to wear a hat. The proceeds of Hat Day went to the Kossuth County Cancer Foundation. In addition to Hat Day, proceeds from the Varsity Pink Out games’ pass the bucket, a free will donation for old uniforms, and shooting during halftime was donated to the foundation. In total, $1,237.24 was donated to the Kossuth County Cancer Foundation. Following the boys’ Varsity game, a three point contest was held for any Algona High School students. Junior, Lauren McLaughlin, won the three point contest, making nine of ten three pointers in the final round!
This past week, rock/paper/scissors, the advisory challenge, was completed. Advisories found their own individual winner who then went against other advisories. Mr. Worsfold’s advisory was crowned champion!
Overall, Whoopcoming was a huge success for many people. Jacob Schutter, the organizer of this event, says, “I hope this tradition keeps going and gets better and better every year because it is my last year planning this fun event for the students. I can’t wait to see all of the creative ideas for the years ahead.”