And the Ranger Choice Award Goes to…

By: Krissy Hetherington

To kick off Homecoming Week, Redwood hosted their rendition on Nickelodeon’s “Teen Choice Awards” for the annual assembly. Homecoming court was crowned, the entertainment was spirited, clubs got involved, and drama enthusiastically improvised a taxicab scene. To cap things off, ASB slimed Mr. Shin.

As students walked in, each class represented a popular Nickelodeon show that we each grew up with; Freshmen- Blues Clues, Sophomores- Big Time Rush, Juniors- Fairly Odd Parents, and finally Seniors- Spongebob.

Sprinkled throughout the whole assembly, Redwood was able to showcase the production side of the school. First, Mr. Carrillo led Chamber Choir into singing the usual National Anthem. For the seniors, this was their last time performing at the Homecoming rally. “I was definitely sad…I felt like [our performance] went really well and I’m excited for what the rest of the year has in store,” says three year member Karis Ramage, ’20.

Following the song, Redwood’s Video Program presented a short clip capturing the energy and week at a glace of last year’s homecoming week and football game, all 62 nominees this year, top 5, and ending with a congratulations and short message from last year’s Homecoming Queen, Molly Collins, ’20, to the 2019 homecoming court. One of the main editors of Ranger TV, Kirsten Cobarruvias, ’20, shared some insight on the process, “kinda complicated, basically made a spreadsheet with all the nominees then schedule times to film a clip of each one…for the 2018 highlight video I used the first song to come to mind, ‘Homecoming,’ and searched through the server for footage of last year…it was really to look back on seeing the seniors from last year…”

The hosts of this year’s Ranger Choice Awards was the three Gilcrest siblings, Mia, ’21, Josh,’20, and Connor, ’20. They pumped up the crowd with their loud voices, big energy, and lots of school spirit from their outfits. Mia, said, “I was nervous at first but it was amazing having that opportunity to be there will my siblings, I will never forget.” For Connor, this last Hoco experience was, “really an honor…especially special with my siblings and I’ll never forget these memories with my family and school.”

Jenna Agredano,’20, and Emilie Walker, ’20, announced the first Top 5 nominee dressed up as Cosmo and Wanda keeping that Nickelodeon theme. A video on the big screen highlighted the first nominee, Mya Ables, ’20. She represents Redwood Cheer and is escorted by Julian Sanchez, ’20.

Marcus Hernandez, ’21, and Eddie Villareal, ’21, represented characters from iCarly and introduced the second nominee of Top 5. Rikki Gonzalez, ’20, representing CSF was given the next Ranger choice award along with her escort, Tanner Terrible, ’20.

In between the first two nominee introductions and the next few, ASB hosted a Hungry Hippos game using laundry baskets and balloons. All 4 classes were represented and fought hard but it was the Sophomore class that came out on top with 13 balloons. Class of ’22, was represented by Cole Pritchett, ’22, and Jayce Ford, ’22.

The third Top 5 “Ranger choice award” was presented to Abbie Linhares, ’20, and her escort, Liam Goss, ’20, both representing the ever growing and success of Redwood’s FBLA club.

By getting clubs involved in the rally, ASB hosted a Relay Race game with Link Club vs. drama vs. FBLA. After collaboration on skiis, blowing ping pong balls, and hula hooping, it was the boys of FBLA that came out on top.

Succeeding the relay dash, the fourth nominee was “awarded.” The video presented Digital Film Club’s President Leyla Lujan, ’20, escorted by Jacob Rodriguez, ’20.

Along with Nickelodeon, the idea of a club oriented week was emphasized again with a game of tug-o-war between some honorable club presidents. By focusing more on clubs than usual, Christine Santos, ’20, Rally Commissioner, said, “I knew that Homecoming is about the clubs and I knew I had to shine more light on them than just calling out their names or putting their club somewhere around the gym… I thought it was a good idea to get way more involvement with the clubs by using them in games that required big teams or lots of people. By doing this I feel like I created a lot of feeling of family and for other clubs to know that they really do something for this school which student involvement is very important!”

Announcing the last Top 5 nominee was Brayden Herrera as he walked out and mimicked a commerical advertisement to get some humor out of the crowd. He introduced ASB President, Jada Griffiths, ’20, and her escort and sidekick, ASB VP Josh Gilcrest, ’20.

Performing last but with a lot of energy the whole way through was Dance Force in their brand new Michael Jordan themed basketball jerseys and showing off their latest dance. They’ve been working at it for week and really implemented both Hip Hip and Jazz styles to make it longer than most in the past.

After this, the Top 5 competed against their escorts in a hula hoop game and the girls came out on top. Following the game, Molly Collins, ’19, was presented on the stage with a personal video to the Top 5 encouraging them to get involved and to make the most of their week.

Following this, a few kids that introduced the nominees participated in a Taxi Cab skit and improvising in front of the whole school. They got some good laughs and fun encouragement and was able to represent the Drama department as well as promote their Fall Play in a few weeks.

Ending the assembly, ASB brought out slime and unexpectedly poured on top of Principal Shin as he released students back to class.

On behalf of the rally as a whole Santos addressed the changes she implemented into this year’s rally. One of these being the placement of the Alma Mater and National Anthem, “I wanted to leave my mark and to do this was to change tradition up a bit, and I, along with others, felt that when doing the Alma Mater, at the end, students tended to leave and then no one would really learn it so we decided to put it at the beginning along with the national anthem before we really started the rally.”