It is the 100th homecoming of Concordia College. With the pandemic hurting last year’s traditional homecoming festivities, Cobbers around campus are buzzing with excitement with this year’s activities being as normal as they possibly can be.
The Centrum was decorated with gold and maroon streamers and flowers to match. The Concordia Jazz Combo played the prelude before the coronation event. Students, faculty and friends and family of the homecoming court filled up the room.
The room gets quiet. Eric Johnson, Director of Alumni Relations, steps up to the microphone giving the introduction to coronation.
“We have had rain-coming, snow-coming and no-coming,” said Johnson. “We have had hard times that go from weather to pandemics to politics to the basic hardships of being a college student.”
Johnson said that the things and events we do during homecoming week demonstrate the community and connectedness that Concordia has.
Carrie Voss, the Homecoming Committee Chair, gave a few words before the presentation of the homecoming court. She explained how excited she is to be able to have the traditional homecoming events come back this year.
Before the coronation, the homecoming court could be found in the upper level of the Knutson Center getting ready and meeting with their escorts.
Women are seen in all black dresses plus one jumpsuit while the men sported black tuxedos.
For the women, a favorite place to get a dress was Amazon. For the men, they seemed to have a tux ready to go. A few of them even admitted that they were wearing their tux they wore to their prom in high school.
“My suit is from Men’s Warehouse but it is the one I wore to my high school prom,” said Kyle Little.
All of the homecoming court felt honored and even a little surprised they were there.
“It is honestly a huge honor and a bit of a surprise. I did not think I would be nominated at all so a huge thank you to my fellow Cobbers,” said Vanessa Petrich.
After the presentation of the homecoming court, words of wisdom were given to them by last year’s homecoming queens, Erin Grabinger and Jessica Skindelien. Following them was a musical performance given by the jazz combo.
The moment people had been waiting for had finally arrived. The crowning of the 2021 homecoming royalty.
The king is Lance Morlock who was escorted by Cindy Larson-Casselton and the queen is Heather Ukaonu who was escorted by Michelle M. Lelwica.
“It feels very good and I feel very honored. My cheeks hurt so much from smiling,” said Ukaonu.
“The Hymn to Concordia” was sung by everyone with pictures and hugs to follow after the ceremony while the jazz combo played the recessional.
“I feel so honored and blessed to be chosen by the student body. There are so many people on campus that embody what Concordia is all about and I just feel so blessed to be chosen by Concordia,” said Morlock.
Coronation kicked off the rest of the campus homecoming events throughout the week that have been tradition to Concordia for many years.
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