Written by the Darby Yearbook Staff
Editors: Effie Knapp and Charley McDowell
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The 2024 Homecoming Week was a total success! We would like to thank the Booster Club for all the time they spent decorating our hallways, donating funds to our school, and hosting the barbeque on Saturday! Thank you again to the Booster Club! To kick the week off, we had themed dress-up days that the students and staff participated in. The themes were: Hawaiian, Rhyme without Reason, USA, Country vs. Country Club, and finally School Spirit! These dress-up days, along with Friday’s assembly, excited our students for the upcoming sports games.
Our Homecoming parade’s theme for this year was “Walk The Plank” because we played Victor. The school had over five floats, including floats for freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, football, and volleyball. The senior float was a wooden pirate ship; the junior float was a pirate ship with a mermaid; the sophomore’s float consisted of the little red bus, a makeshift pirate ship, and a float decorated like the ocean. All the floats were accompanied by people walking on either side to pass out candy. Shout out to the Darby Police and Fire Departments for their help!
The results for Homecoming Royalty are Emerson Atkins won King and Lilly Bennett won Queen. John Dicken won Prince and Kimber Bailey won Princess. Other nominees were: Keegan Goodwin, Hunter Bruso, Georgia Fisher, and Hailey Heiland. Congratulations to all who participated!
Moving on to the sports of that weekend, Darby’s football team started off with a bang scoring instantly on the first drive. Afterwards, Darby got a crucial stop, which caused Victor to get flustered and make a mistake: they snapped the ball over the quarterback's head causing a forced safety. Darby’s spirits were high from this point forward! Darby junior McCoy Townsend had a remarkable game scoring 6 total touchdowns, 4 rushing and 2 receiving. Eli Jones rushed for 1 touchdown, and Jordan Browning threw for 4. The final score was a landslide with Darby beating Victor 52-2.
In an interview, Coach Steiner stated that they “played a great game [and] did what we were supposed to do.” He went on to say that on defense “Liam Lucas had quite a few tackles, as well as Chris Moore. Shannon Stuart, Keegan Goodwin, and Tanner Shavers had great blocks the whole game.” Coach Steiner praised the team saying “they’ve been really focused this year, putting hard work in the weight room [and] lots of commitment.”
For Darby’s cross country team, their homecoming meet was in Corvallis. For Girls JV, Brooklyn Rogers placed 1st and Ella Bush placed 5th. In the Girls Varsity division, Lily Adair placed 10th, and in the Boys Varsity division, Ben Martin placed 6th. In an interview, Coach Gideon shared that “everyone PR’d [and] beat their scores by 20 seconds to at least a minute.” He went on to say that he’s “really proud of all the cross country kids. At the end of the day, cross country is probably the single best sport for kids [because] it’s much more than running: we lift weights, we make a team, [and] we learn to be independent.” He also expressed how important it is for the runners to see support from the Darby community. There will be a cross country meet in Hamilton at the Daly Mansion on October 3rd at 4:00 pm. The team would love to see you there!
During volleyball, Victor put up a good fight but the Tigers pulled through winning both JV and Varsity games 3 to 0. The Pirates started out in the lead but the Tigers were catching up fast. The suspense was palpable, but our girls pulled through winning the Homecoming game! There was some good school spirit; the student section was amazing at supporting the girls. Thank you to everyone who showed up to support the team! Congratulations to the coaches and the team!
Overall, Homecoming week went great. The students who participated had a blast! The community enjoyed seeing all of the Homecoming events. Everything looked perfect between decorations and students dressing up. The week couldn’t have turned out any better!