Students celebrate homecoming week

CSU-Pueblo celebrated Homecoming from Monday, Oct. 8, to Saturday, Oct. 13.

Homecoming Week featured many different events that were designed to engage students in campus life and pump up school spirit.

While Homecoming was a big event for CSU-Pueblo during the years that the university had a football team, the event’s popularity was significantly lessened after the sport was cut.

Campus records indicate that the last organized Homecoming events at CSU-Pueblo took place in the ‘80s.

However, Homecoming Week has slowly been regaining some of its former glory.

Alumni Association President Laura Brandt began working on improving the festivities after her arrival at CSU-Pueblo in 2003.

“Homecoming is a means of bringing students together to support CSU-Pueblo,” Brandt said.

Homecoming is a traditional event at universities as a way to create school spirit and support a sports team, as well as get alumni involved on campus again.

Football is the sport which Homecoming is traditionally focused on and, without a team at CSU-Pueblo, a different approach had to be taken.

Rather than focusing on football, Brandt helped shift the focus of CSU-Pueblo’s Homecoming week to soccer.

“A lot of people said we couldn’t have Homecoming without football,” Brandt said. “We did it anyway, and we had a lot of fun.”

The T-wolf Challenge was one of the first events that Brandt started working on for Homecoming Week.

Students team up to participate in several different challenges. These Fear Factor type stunts give students an opportunity to push themselves to the limit, as they compete to win a pair of mountain bikes.

Last year was the first year that Homecoming started to really make an impact on campus. A student-led Homecoming committee was organized and took responsibility for many campus events.

Homecoming Committee President Arrica Gilmer has been working in conjunction with Brandt and many other campus offices in an effort to get the whole campus involved in the Homecoming festivities.

Every day of Homecoming Week will have its own theme, starting with Toga Day on Monday and ending with Family Fun Day on Saturday.

Tuesday is focused on the Wild West, with a bonfire and a hot wing eating contest sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings.

Wednesday, the men’s soccer team took on University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (UCCS) and Friday the women’s soccer team played Colorado Christian.

A kick-ball tournament on Thursday, which is also groovy ‘70s day, pitted students against faculty and staff teams.

The 4th annual alumni luau was held on campus on Friday. The event was open to students this year, in an effort to bring alumni and current students together in support of CSU-Pueblo.

On Saturday, Homecoming Week ended with Family Fun Day, which offered hay rides, a pumpkin patch, face painting and live music.

Although Brandt said she planned on this year’s Homecoming being better than ever, with football returning to the university next year, Brandt said she expects Homecoming can only get bigger.
 

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