Hoopscoming is Pitman’s nickname for Basketball’s Homecoming. Hoopscoming nominees were nominated by their clubs and sports teams to represent them for the week. The week of Hoopscoming, February 2-6, 2015, was filled with dress up days, lunch time activities, a Hoopscoming Rally, and Pitman’s first ever Black Light Dance.
Monday was Clone day, a day in which students dressed like one another in hopes of creating the largest groups of clones. At lunch,there was a contest for the largest group of clones; among the winners was the band students dressed in Stanislaus T-shirts.
Elderly day was Tuesday, and Pitman’s campus resembled an old folks home. At lunch, the Hoopscoming nominees participated in a balloon popping contest. Each participant had one balloon tied around their ankle, and the objective was to ensure the safety of ones own balloon, while popping others, in hopes of being the last man standing. After a long, hard, and hilarious battle, two opponents were left: Zedy Brown, and Alex Seeley. It was a long battle, but Zedy Brown was finally able to pop Seeley’s balloon after a standoff. Both participants were awarded small bags of candy for their win.
On Wednesday, the campus was crawling with “teachers” as the student body participated in staff dress up day, and a contest was held at lunch for the best look alike. There were three individual prizes and three group prizes. Haley Brock dressed as Mr. Moren wearing a track and field shirt, mustache and beard, and wheeled a bike onto stage. Julia Lind dressed as Dr. Staley wearing her captains hat and carrying a Math Analysis binder. Allie Austin dressed as her father, Mr. Austin, with a plaid shirt and bald head. The group winners were the Fishes, all dressed like they were ready for a safari, the Modestos, with their button ups, and goatee’s, and the Fahardians, dressed with their beanies on head.
PHAST, Protecting Health and Slamming Tobacco, was in charge of the lunch-time activities for fitness day. Lunch activities included sumo wrestling, baseball, and races in a bounce house. Ben David, junior, stated, “The week in itself was fun. The dress up days and the lunch time activities were put together well and it was fun to be a part of.”
Friday was Spirit day, and PitmanHigh School’s campus was covered in green and silver. Students crowded into the gymnasium in anticipation for the Hoopscoming Rally.The theme for the rally was “Gameshow”. Students and nominees participated in games such as life size “Angry Birds”, Teacher Trivia, and Bean bag basketball. There were performances by Pitman’s color guard, varsity cheerleaders, and Brass suicides. The rally concluded with the announcing of the 2015 Hoopscoming royalty. Brent Davis, swim, and Rayana Plancarte, girls soccer, were crowned Prince and Princess. Zeddy Brown, Science Club, and Desiree Pina, Ultimate Frisbee, were crowned King and Queen. Brent Davis explained his experience of winning prince to me stating, “Being a newcomer to the swim team, I was shocked that they chose to nominate me. When I heard my name called for prince, I was overjoyed to find that not only myself, but the entire team had the support of the rest of the school.”
Pitman has never had a dance other than Formal and Prom, but for the first time this year, Sydney Holmes was able give the student body a black light dance. “ASB worked really hard to pull this dance off,” Sydney explained, “it makes everyone’s day when we hear positive feedback from the student body. Personally, I was ecstatic when I finally heard we could even have the dance because I know the student body had been asking for one for years! Overall, I was super pleased with the turnout and how much fun everyone had. It honestly made my senior year that much more amazing.”
Pitman High’s own Cyrus Elia DJed for the night, and got nothing but great reviews. 2015’s Pitman Hoopscoming was definitely a week to remember.