There was plenty of fun and excitement around the Escalon High School campus over the past week, with a flurry of activity for Homecoming.
The week was capped off with the crowning of Emily Gutierrez as the 2021-22 Homecoming Queen, presented with the crown at halftime of the Friday night varsity football game on Sept. 10. Last year’s queen, Kaitlyn Baptista, was able to come back and present the crown while football team captains Tyler Medina and EJ Lewis handled the presentation of the cape, sash, signed football and flowers.
Each of the five candidates – Sarah Bava, Taylor Cullum, Soleil Gouzenne, Amanda Murphy and Gutierrez – had brief biographies read as they toured the track in their showcase vehicles. Once stopping, an escort accompanied them to the football field where the announcement was made.
For her part, Gutierrez noted that her favorite memory at EHS was making the cheer team as a freshman and continuing to cheer throughout her high school years. She was escorted to the football field by her mother Erin and her brother Alex.
“I am so surprised and extremely grateful to have been given the role of Homecoming Queen for EHS,” said a happy Gutierrez after the crowning and prior to being surrounded by her cheer squad teammates.
Her plans for the future include attending college to study speech pathology.
Serving as emcees for the festivities were junior Homecoming Commissioners Isabella Nalbandian and Grace Underwood, who also provided the crowd with information on the float competition winners.
In fourth place were the freshmen, whose float theme was NASA, in keeping with the “Eski is out of this World” Homecoming theme. Third place went to the Space Cowboys float by the juniors and the sophomores were awarded second place honors with their float and the theme of Area 51.
The Class of 2022 had the winning float entry and their theme was Lunar Landing, the spirited group of seniors pumping up the crowd both at the downtown afternoon parade and in between the JV and varsity football games on Friday night.
Also during the week, the sophomores won the Powder Puff competition on Wednesday evening, defeating the seniors in the championship game.
