It’s been two years since Simpson College has fully celebrated Homecoming. To students, the festivities were long overdue.

Simpson wanted to meet the expectations of the students who missed out on last year and give back what was lost. 

“I feel like they tried to put more into it because it is the first one – not really after COVID, but during [COVID] that we could somewhat be normal,” junior Alexis Crozier said.

This year students had many choices to spend their time on for Homecoming. The Medallion Hunt was as popular as ever, but it was joined by many other favorite Homecoming traditions and activities. 

Street painting began Tuesday and continued throughout the rest of the week. The Residence Life team took home the win for this event for their “Nightmare Before Christmas” inspired artwork.

On Tuesday night, Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) won the annual dodgeball tournament. 

This year’s homecoming games, held on Thursday, were based on the hit Netflix show “Squid Game.” Competition was stiff and the weather was cold. The games were held near the fraternities. Lambda Chi Alpha (Lambda) won the event. 

The festivities built to the end of the week which held the main events. On Friday, both Yell Like Hell and Dance Like Hell were held one after the other, much to the excitement of students. 

Yell Like Hell was held early in the evening in Cowles Fieldhouse. Once the groups were done performing, it was declared by the panel of judges that the Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) sorority was the overall winner of the competition. The judges included President Marsha Kelliher, Academic Dean John Woell, professor Barb Ramos, Vice President of DEI Keyah Levy and Executive Assistant for Academic Affairs Chelsea Grenier.  The sorority won $1,000 for its victory.

The overall winner of Homecoming week was also announced following Yell Like Hell. Lambda was announced as the winner of $1,000 for its efforts. Lambda’s Fraternity Educator and Archivist Scott Krueger said that the chapter plans to pass the money along to help assist the family of a recently deceased chapter alumni member. 

“One of the things about Lambda is we prize an everlasting brotherhood, a brotherhood that goes far beyond graduation,” Krueger said. 

He believes it gave the group more to compete for than themselves. 

“There’s always a bigger fish,” Krueger said.

Later in the evening on Friday, Dance Like Hell was held in Black Box. The event included aerialists, glowing robots, glow sticks and all the loud music a college student could want. 

After the entire Homecoming week came and went, next came the last event – the cause for it all. The Simpson Storm hosted the Buena Vista University Beavers on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. To put an unfortunate end to the week, the Storm lost a tough game 50-19.