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What an incredible Homecoming it was! We may not have beaten our rival, San Marino, but the spirit at Ray Solari stadium was palpable. The stands were filled to capacity with Tigers past and present, all gathered to share their Tiger pride. The cheerleaders all donned orange and white flower crowns and the Homecoming Court sat at a royal table on the field after having dinner at Briganti earlier in the evening.
The Homecoming festivities were stellar beginning with the absolutely dynamic, award winning performance of Elements of Life by the SPHS Tiger Band and Color Guard. Their precision is astounding and the crowd went wild for them. The whole town has such tremendous pride in our high school band and all of their accomplishments. Hats off to Mr. Crawford, the entire band and how about those music booster parents working concessions and making that amazing teriyaki chicken?!
Next up, SPHS Dance introduced each member of the Homecoming Court with a spooky dance number in keeping with the Spooktacular theme. First up was a super fun rendition of Michael Jackson’s Thriller with Diego Zavala giving the crowd his best moonwalk afterwhich freshman Royal Tiger, Pieter Wielenga was escorted by his father, teacher Donald Wielenga.
Earlier, at the Homecoming assembly, Pieter described his father as his hero and when asked who he would want with him on a desert island, he replied, “my brother, because he always looks out for me.”
Sophomore Royal Tiger was Ian Wang, escorted by his mother, Ann Wang and was introduced by a funky “IT/Ghostbusters” medley. His hobbies include running, backpacking, eating and binge watching Netflix and his celebrity crush is Ryan Gosling, “because he’s hot.”
Junior Royal Tiger, Rita Mastromatteo, was escorted by her father, Ignazio Mastromatteo, after a gaggle of skeletons danced to a “spooky, scary” skeleton dance. Rita is a girl scout, a candy striper at Huntington Hospital , and she is involved with Youth & Government and the Swim Team.
The Senior Royals were introduced with a wacky, neon wigged dance number beginning with Nolan Kim who was escorted by his mother, Jaqueline. Riley Segal, editor in chief of Tiger Newspaper, was escorted by her father and Halle Sunnabe, escorted by mother, Marian Sunnabe, is in the Tiger Band, COPA and the Pasadena Youth Symphony Philharmonic.
After a few breathless moments, Riley Segal was announced as Royal Tiger 2018 as a fantastic firework display went off on the southern end of the field produced by ASB. Said Segal of the moment, “it’s really nice to be chosen by my peers. It means a lot and it’s been a really cool experience. I’m glad I got to be a part of it.” And of hearing her name called out she says, “I was very surprised!”
