For years, Homecoming has made its yearly appearance on Drury’s campus. This year, however, Drury’s Homecoming was boosted and elevated to a whole new level. Student Union Board, more commonly known as SUB, planned a busy week for students to participate and recognize the importance of Homecoming.  

Homecoming stretched from Monday, February 12 through Saturday, February 17 with an event each day. This year, additions of Homecoming Cup and teams were added to encourage students to participate in the events throughout the week. When asked if this cup was going to become a part of Drury Homecoming tradition, Riley Sinkhorn, VP of Homecoming for SUB replied, 

“We are definitely planning to use the cup in future years! We have had it for a while, but we had not figured out what to do with it until this year,” said Sinkhorn.  

Monday began the Homecoming kick off. There were escape rooms, giveaways, stuffed animals, and food. The teams that competed for the Homecoming Cup this year were National Residence Hall Honorary, Drury Swim and Dive, Kappa Delta, Kappa Alpha, Drury Fraternal Council/Panhellenic Council, Pi Beta Phi, Panthers First, Sociedad de Orgullo Latinon, Lambda Chi Alpha, Sigma Nu, Sunderland Hall, and Behavioral Sciences Club. 

This year’s Homecoming Court was also announced at this event. This year’s court consisted of Gemma Ross, Bailey Macke, Quinn Vonder Haar, Shannon Donohue, Molly Jackson, Cam Lowe, Rome Little Jr., Logan Stotler, Jeremiah Jones, Gabriel Mercante. 

Following Monday’s kick-off was a campus wide Treasure Hunt on Tuesday. Both teams and individuals competed to find some of Drury’s favorite treasures. Students were encouraged to take pictures at the Career Planning and Development, Pool Arts Center, Einstein Bagel Bros., and many other places and monuments on campus. Drury’s Kappa Delta won the treasure hunt.  

Wednesday continued the festivities by giving back to the community. Teams dropped off donated canned food for Ozarks Food Harvest and decorated team signs on Wednesday evening. Over 1,500 cans were donated to Ozarks Food Harvest, equaling 1,371 pounds or 1,143 meals.  

Thursday began the wind-down of events with basketball and trivia. SUB hosted a fun evening of trivia, prizes, and food for both individuals and teams alike. The winning team was announced at the Drury Lady Panthers game at halftime. The Lady Panthers competed with University of Missouri – St. Louis, sweeping the Tritons in a victory of 89 to 68, carrying on the Lady Panthers winning streak to 11 games. Pi Beta Phi also had a victory of their own, winning trivia. 

Friday evening, live comedian magician Trent James was scheduled to perform. Unfortunately, this event was canceled due to weather conditions. Raising Canes was still provided for students to enjoy that evening.  

Saturday wrapped up the Homecoming Finale for students. Starting at 11 was a tailgate put on by Drury Fanthers with giveaways and free Chick-Fil-A for the students before the Drury Lady Panthers took on McKendree University Bearcats at 1. Students filed into the O’Reilly Family Event Center to find out the winner of the game, Homecoming Court, and Homecoming Cup. At halftime, the winners of both Homecoming Court and Cup were announced. SUB was pleased with the amount of people that showed up for the events this year, 

“The turnout was really good considering the last-minute changes that had to be made because of weather and vehicle issues. We had a lot of participation from teams at all the events, and from the student body as a whole!” said Sinkhorn. 

SUB also said that students seemed much more engaged and willing to participate in this year’s homecoming events, 

“We had quite a few more people at the events than we did last year, and I think that adding the teams and getting competition involved helped to keep everyone engaged. It also helped that we had events every single day so that way people sated involved,” said Sinkhorn.  

The winners of this year’s Homecoming Court were Shannon Donohue and Cam Lowe. The winners of this year’s Homecoming Cup were Drury’s Kappa Delta. The Lady Panther’s pulled away with their own win over McKendree University of 87 to 75, carrying on their winning streak to 12 games.  

This year’s homecoming seemed very well received by Drury’s student body. There were many new things added this year, but SUB mentioned that there would be a few things that would need to be tweaked for next year.  

“This was our first year doing a lot of the stuff we did so there were a few things that had to be ironed out throughout the week, but I think we found a layout we liked so we will change things around and see what happens in the coming years!” said Sinkhorn. 

This year’s Homecoming was a success. Drury students and faculty look forward to what SUB has planned for homecoming next year, and for the rest of spring semester.  

Article by Riley Krueger and Sophie Meek

Featured image courtesy of Drury SUB