The Candyland Dance was the cherry on top of a sweet spirit week.

Homecoming week, which happened from September 4 to September 8, was filled with a rally, spirit days, a football game and a dance to end the week.

Activities Director Matt MacDonald was shocked when he heard how close the Jungle dance and the Homecoming dances were.

“We had no say in (how close the dances were), but ultimately because of the football game we only have 4 home games,” said Mr. MacDonald. “The first home game was against Oroland, and we had (the September 8 game), and one during October break, and one against Colfax. We try not to do Homecoming against one of our rivals.”

Stuart Wenger, a junior, was part of the planning of Homecoming and went all out during the spirit days.

“The spirit days were really cool, there was a huge turnout,” said Wenger. “I saw a lot of people dress up for certain days, it was nice.”

Shelbi Beghetti, a junior and 3 year returning leadership member, was thrilled about the Homecoming turnout.

“Our leadership class was at the school late nights just trying to get prepared,” said Beghetti. “We tried to get the spirit out as soon as possible to get everyone ready.”

Brittney Rogers, a junior, was a huge part of the the Junior float building.

“I feel like it went really well, because we weren’t really ready,” said Rogers. “The float looked really good for all the hard work that we did, and the dance was really fun.”

Leadership members loved the Nerds vs. Pop Rockers day.

“My favorite day to dress up for was probably Nerds vs. Rockers because it’s always fun because you could pretend that you hit your best friend and it’s always fun to dress up for,” said Beghetti.

“I thought that the spirit days went really well, and I really like Nerds day because a lot of people dressed up and it was super cute,” said Rogers.

Football didn’t go unnoticed with a great record of 3-0 so far this year. The Bear River Bruins beat the previously undefeated and Nevada State Champion team, Pershing County High School, with a score of 31-10.

Co-team captain Jake Leonard, a senior Varsity defensive end, believed that the team played hard during the Homecoming game.

“I thought it was really good because of the student sections, that was a big part of the game and the whole week,” said Leonard. “I feel like we overestimated Pershing county but we were also very prepared.”

 Junior Chad Bucher, a Varsity corner back, had his very first experience at the Homecoming game at the Varsity level.

“The atmosphere during the game was very electrifying,” said Bucher. “The game was very special, it wasn’t like any other home game. It was more important. It was one of the most important home games in my opinion.”

Junior Hunter Daniels, a Varsity fullback, was thrilled to go 3-0 for the season.

“We did pretty good in the first half. The offense played really well and then defense played really really well,” said Daniels. “It feels pretty good because there was a lot of people there, so it was a good win against Pershing County from Nevada. We’re 3-0 now so it feels pretty good.”

Mr. MacDonald and Leadership went through a lot to get the dance done.

“It was a brand new theme that we haven’t done yet and when we started thinking about the floats and all the different things, we really wanted to choose this theme,” said Mr. MacDonald. “We have the dance outside, we have confetti cannons.”

There was some complaints during the dance with the DJ not playing any of the recommended songs the leadership class gave him.

“Over all the dance went well, I like the neon theme,” said Beghetti. “We’re all pretty disappointed in the DJ. We communicated with the DJ, we sent him multiple lists of what songs to play and songs not to play but his manager did not pass them along. We were pretty frustrated about that, but there was nothing you could really do. We just had to try to make the best of it.”

“There was a huge miscommunication with the DJ with the song playlist,” said Wenger. “Apparently his boss got it but he never passed it through. Next time we will definitely give him the right playlist to play.”

— Kalei Owen contributed to this report.