Oct. 12 Centenary kicked off Homecoming with the theme Centenary, Hail! The day featured the first event of the week, a window painting competition between campus organizations. Each day of the week included different activities and events ranging from a chalk competition to the homecoming game itself.
Window painting included a brinner at the Caf from 8-10 p.m. with each group having thirty minutes to create a window painting design. Each organization was assigned a window to create a design that related to the homecoming theme and their organization.
Cat McCraw explained that her favorite part of this event was “getting to see all of the beautiful designs that people made to show off their organizations.” As far as painting for her organization, Outreach, she thinks that “it was really fun working together with Sarah to make the finishing touches at the end!”
Organizations such as the Rivertown Players (pictured) painted windows and enjoyed a special brinner meal.
The second events, Paint the Town Maroon and Maroon Madness, took place on Oct. 14 Students competed to create the best themed chalk design then attended Maroon Madness at 8 p.m. Maroon Madness featured many different events, including the announcing of the cheer, gymnastics and basketball teams, a performance from gymnastics, a dance with professors and the cheer team, sports competitions and the presentation of the homecoming court. It also included banners painted by each organization for a competition throughout the week.
Freshman Lukas Owens explained that, leading up to Maroon Madness, he was “looking forward to the professors dancing with the cheer and stunt team.” His favorite part was “posing for pictures with my quarter zip and TKE big.” When asked what he thinks should be done next year, Owens stated that Centenary should “enforce participation for Dr. Hendricks during the dance sequence.”
The 2026 Homecoming Court is pictured at Maroon Madness. Students learned more about the candidates running for Homecoming King and Queen (Centenary Marketing).
Oct. 15 the gymnastics team hosted Walk like MADD. Students gathered to walk a mile honoring former Centenary gymnast Sylvia Keiter who was tragically killed by a drunk driver in 2018.
“Sylvia was an incredible teammate, friend, and person who brought so much light into the lives of those around her” said Centenary gymnast Hayden Cagle. “Carrying on Sylvia’s legacy is an incredible honor, and we take pride in using our platform as student-athletes to raise awareness about impaired driving.”
The event, which is completely planned by gymnastics team members, is open to students, alumni and community members. The team even invites other gymnastics teams to walk a mile on their own campuses.
Located at Jones-Rice Field, each year the event has been inspiring awareness in the community and gaining more and more attendees since it was first held in 2021.
Oct. 16 students and alumni gathered for Homecoming Fest as organizations participated in a cookie and gumbo cook off, cheer performed and members of the homecoming court were honored.
Student Allison Gonzales, a member of Zeta Tau Alpha, explained that ZTA spent a long time planning for their cookoff at the event.
“Last year we won the gumbo contest. I really wanna win this year. We already knew that one of our sisters, Bryn, was gonna be the one making the gumbo, and she also ended up making the cookies.”
As far as homecoming itself , Gonzales felt like “especially this year, people have been showing up and out for homecoming. I feel like it is a really good time of year where everyone comes together.”
Intramurals hosted an event where organizations competed in different sports activities ranging from volleyball, sack racing, tug of war and a relay race. The event also included a dunk tank and free beignets as students watched the competitions.
Evan Halbert, one of the students who worked to make the event happen, explained that “about the middle of August to now we started planning ideas on what would be a good way to get this event together. Last month is when we really got everything together.” His favorite part of the event was “the dunk tank—there’s not many times you get to go in a dunk tank.”
The final event of Homecoming was the football game itself, where the Gents took a 26-23 win. Greek open houses and tailgates kicked off the thrilling game earlier in the day.
Before the game, cheerleader J’anna Sweat explained that her favorite thing about the game was “seeing all of the alumni that come out and support us.”
Sweat correctly predicted that “the Gents are going to win,” closing out Homecoming Week with a secured victory for Centenary overall.