Haunted Hoco 2023

Spirit Days 

Spirit Days 

By: Maggie Simms

Hilton Head Island is celebrating its homecoming week with fun and eventful spirit days. This is a tradition that HHIHS loves participating in. Spirit Week was extra special this year due to being the week before Halloween. Students voted for their spirit week to be Halloween-themed, due to the upcoming holiday. HHIHS Principal is very excited about these days as he stated, "We have some great dress-up days around Halloween with costumes ."

On Monday, it was “Monster Mash the Sharks Monday” where students and teachers wore Halloween or fall pajamas. There were lots of fuzzy pants and slippers to show their spirit.

The next day was, “Spook the Sharks on Twisted Tuesday” where students dressed up in pairs from matching outfits, to fun characters, like the Wonder Pets.

On Wednesday, it was, “Wreck the Sharks on Haunted Shipwreck Wednesday.” Students were tasked with wearing pirate outfits, shiny mermaid tails, or be a slimy sea serpent. The most popular outfit was the pirates as people came in with iconic hats, bandannas, and eye patches.

The next day was, “Steal the Win on Trick and Treat Thursday.” Students had the choice to dress up as either a cop or a robber. Students came in wearing strips and sacs of money or in full police uniforms.

Lastly, Friday was, “Dress in Neon Class Colors on Spooky Spirit Day” Each grade level was assigned a different color to show their spirit for their class. Freshmen were green, Sophomores were orange, Juniors were purple, and seniors were black.

The Seahawks love participating in these spirit days to support their team against the May River Sharks. Rhiannon Curte, a senior at HHIHS, stated, “I love to participate in spirit days because it's a lot of fun dressing up especially when you can match with your friends.”

Hoco Door Decorating

By: Jada Green and Lucy Morales

Hilton Head Island High School (HHIHS) began a new homecoming tradition this year: door decorating!

HHIHS has usual homecoming traditions, such as the annual girls powderpuff football game, a pep rally, and a Friday night football game where the Homecoming court is announced. 

However, Mr. Schidrich states, “We used to do hall decorating, but the problem was that students had to come to school on a Sunday to decorate. It was an all-day thing and usually by Monday or Tuesday, everything decorated was usually down or falling apart.” 

Facing this problem, Mr. Schidrich and faculty came up with door decorating. Mr. Schidrich states, “classes go out into the hallway during Hawk Time and decorate the doors.”

HHIHS wanted to make this new tradition fun, so they decided to turn it into a competition. 

Teachers and students were challenged to decorate their door with a spooky, Halloween homecoming theme to support the football team as they will play against the May River Sharks for homecoming. 

Mrs. Weitekamper won first place in the door decorating contest! Mrs. Eastham won second place, and Mrs. Taylor won third place. Dr. Choate earned an honorable mention.

With Mrs.Weitekamper’s door, her overall theme was “stew the sharks”.  Her door had a balloon arch, and featured a shark crying for help as it was being boiled in shark stew. She featured ghost cutouts with student drawing decorations. The stew cauldron was lit up by lights. It was well decorated which led to her winning first place.  Mrs. Eastham’s door stated, “scare the sharks out of the water.” Her door is surrounded by many decorations. The decoration that stuck out the most was a seahawk hanging from the ceiling grasping onto a shark with its talons. Mrs. Taylor’s door’s theme was also shark stew and was surrounded by decorated student pumpkins. 

Each teacher was awarded with a goodie bag, which included a gift card and Dr. Choate was awarded 3 covered lunch duties. 

Powderpuff R1

By:Samanta Garcia 

Powderpuff is girls flag football and is played during Homecoming week. Hilton Head Island High School does it every year to show school spirit. The girls sign up and get a t- shirt for their specific grade level. There are two rounds for the first round two out of the four grade levels battle each other and the winners from those games move on to the championship.

The first grades to go against each other are the freshman versus the juniors. It was a close and tough battle with touchdowns here and there, and flags being thrown. The freshman pulled a shocker and beat the juniors.

The second game was sophomore versus the seniors. The seniors were trying to defend their championship from last year because they won it as juniors. Although the sophomores put up a fight it wasn’t enough. As the seniors completely destroyed the sophomores, they still kept good spirits and danced even though they lost.

As the freshman and seniors battled each other to see who is the powderpuff champion they will face each other on October 26, 2023. During buy-out day- HHIHS students get to buy themselves out of class for one dollar and watch which class of Lady Seahawks. So who will be this year's powderpuff champions? Who do you think will win? The youngest grade or the oldest, you choose.

PowderPuff Championship

By: Angel A. 

Powderpuff is a tradition at Hilton Head High School. It’s been around for 20 years and it keeps on going. Powderpuff is flag football but only girls play it. Girls from each grade team up and compete against other grades to be crowned the HHIHS champion. Last year the class of 2024 won it and this year they are looking to repeat it. They are facing the freshman”Class of 2027.” This game was played on October 26 in front of the whole school at the football stadium. The game started with the seniors kicking the ball. Soon after the seniors scored. Then the freshman tried to attack but the  senior defense was too tough for them to score and soon the seniors got the ball and scored. The game went on and the seniors kept dominating and when the game ended, the seniors won 36-12. The class of 2024 won again for the second year in a row, crowning themselves HHIHS champions and having bragging rights for another year. 

                                            Homecoming Football Game 

By: Kourtny Kosto

Unfortunately The Seahawks didn't go out with a win at the Nest for the Upcoming football game. The score was 9-6. Although it was a close there were lots of discrepancies with the ref calls. The Seahawks did their best and they will be back and better next season.

The student section theme was neon and the football team was selling fight cancer t-shirts all the proceeds went to Seahawk families in need.

Homecoming Court at HHIHS

By: Mia Heitman

Hilton Head Island High School has many fun things planned for the week of homecoming. These include spirit week, a powderpuff football game, a school buy out day, and a homecoming dance. The homecoming dance includes electing a homecoming court.

Homecoming court is usually made up of a homecoming king and queen, and anyone else who becomes homecoming royalty. This year, “Homecoming king and queen will be revealed at the homecoming football game at half time.” 

 Members of the school such as students and teachers vote who is to be elected through a series of polls. In the first round of voting, all students from each grade are able to be chosen. Four girls and boys will move onto the next round until there is one boy and one girl from each grade.

Here at HHIHS, staff members also get to be homecoming royalty. Two staff members are elected to become homecoming emperor and empress. This lets the staff engage with students and join in the fun as well. 

For seniors of Hilton Head Island High School, homecoming court is a big deal. “Being elected homecoming queen or king is a great way to make the senior year more memorable.” The final voting poll includes Lynda Young, Ella Christie, Emilie Fister, and Sherlyn Torres Vargas for females. For the males, Jackson Bibbee, Anthony Bynum, Bradley Larson, and D’Vontre Simmons made it in the running. 

Coach Perry and Mr. Kingsley were crowned empress and emperor at the Pep Rally. Jackson Bibee was crowned Homecoming King alongside Lynda Young as Homecoming Queen.

HHIHS Haunted Homecoming

By: Jake Heitman

Since the concept of high school was created, there has always been one week a year where the entire school is enveloped with school spirit and pride. There are dress-up days throughout the week and a huge football game on Friday night. Well, it's no different at HHIHS and we take it to the extreme here at the Nest. Not just on our dress-up days or Friday night games, but most importantly at the Homecoming Dance on Saturday night. Mrs. Britt, Hilton Head Island High School social studies  teacher and a chief organizer of the dance, tells us more about the specifics of the event. 

“The Homecoming Dance is going to be a blast. There will be music, lights and decorations to light up the night and make it fun for the students.”

When asked about the theme of the dance, she said, “The theme of the dance is going to be a haunted homecoming. There will be spooky decorations and the dance overall will have an eerie feeling.”  

“However, this is not a costume dance. It is semi-formal, so make sure you have a nice outfit to wear and not something you would wear to a Halloween party,” is how she responded when asked what the dress code would be at the dance. 

When asked about how much a ticket is in order to attend, she said, “ A ticket for an HHIHS student is going to be $10 and a ticket for another student from a Beaufort County School District school will be $20.”

“The dance is going to be held from 8-11pm here in the auxiliary gym at HHIHS on Saturday, October 26th, so make sure you're there!” Is what Mrs. Britt had to say when asked the time and place of the dance. 

Overall, the HHIHS homecoming week and dance is going to be a blast and an event that is going to be remembered here at the Nest for years to come. It was also the largest homecoming dance HHIHS has had in years with 529 students in attendance.