Capping off a fun – and successful – Winter Homecoming Week on the campus of Escalon High School, senior Ben Ferreira was named the 2026 Homecoming King, and helped lead the varsity basketball boys to a Trans-Valley League win over Hilmar.
He received the crown, cape, flowers and congratulations at halftime of the varsity game, hosted in the Cougar Dome on Friday, Jan. 9.
Also nominated for King were Nathan Rose, Luke Hernandez, Efrain Andrade, and Rylan Koops.
Each candidate was announced at halftime and escorted to center court by family members as Homecoming Commissioners Brianne Coelho and Ariella Partida offered some biographical information about them, in addition to outlining their favorite high school memory and their future plans.
For Ferreira, who was escorted by his mom Amanda and his dad Scott, he said his best memories at EHS are serving as an emcee at several rallies as well as doing the morning announcements alongside Ryan Murphy. The senior plans to purse a degree in Business Administration following high school and he has been involved in sports at EHS including football, basketball and tennis in addition to ASB Leadership and First Responders Leadership.
“It feels great,” Ferreira said of being crowned Homecoming King and getting the varsity basketball victory in front of a large home crowd. “We beat the (Hilmar) team pretty well; they have a good team but we played really well and made ourselves look good. Capping it off with the King crown wasn’t too bad, I can’t complaint about that.”
There were different dress up days throughout the week and a school rally on Friday, with underclassmen receiving recognition as part of the royal court as well. For the junior class, Ethan Haskin was selected as the Prince; sophomore Bracco Rissetto was named as the Duke and the Gentleman in Waiting honor went to freshman John Van Dyk.
“The week was awesome, we had a rally before the game today, Marina Franzia and I ran that,” Ferreira said, while also offering a “shout out to Brianne Coelho and Ariella Partida” for coordinating the Homecoming festivities. “It was really amazing; the week was fun, a lot of school spirit, that’s why we do this.”
The newly crowned King also said it was important for the varsity basketball team to get the win, coming off a tough road loss at Sonora to start TVL play earlier in the week, with the Friday night victory hopefully providing some momentum for the rest of the season.
“Ben ended up having a night he’ll never forget,” noted varsity basketball head coach Nate Bartelink. “He was crowned Homecoming King at halftime and ended up scoring a career high 28 points.”
The Winter Homecoming for Escalon had a Disney theme for the 2026 celebration.
