SCHOOLS

Kennedy marks Homecoming, ‘Thursday Night Lights-style’

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Kennedy High School students, faculty and staff were treated to an action-packed day of festivities for the 2014 Homecoming celebration.

The Kennedy Cougars varsity football team took on the Jericho High School Jayhawks in a competitive game on the south Bellmore school’s newly refurbished field at 7 p.m. on Oct. 9.

Kennedy takes in students from south Bellmore and south Merrick.


Principal Lorraine Poppe wrote in an email to parents that students were encouraged to wear special shirts made for this year’s Homecoming game or another white shirt. The teens attended a pep rally at 1:30 p.m. that featured all of the school’s fall sports teams.

After school, students stayed on the grounds to watch Kennedy squads play afternoon games. The girls’ varsity volleyball, girls’ junior-varsity soccer and boys’ varsity soccer teams all played at home. Before the sun could set, the crowd flocked to the Homecoming festival, run by the Kennedy student government.

Just before the game, the Bellmore Fire Department arrived for another Kennedy Homecoming tradition: the lighting of a bonfire on the baseball field. Bystanders watched the flames climb into the darkening sky.

After the bonfire, the Cougars took on the Jayhawks in what Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District officials described as a rare night football game for Kennedy. Lights on stands, loaned to the school by the Town of Hempstead, ran on generators.

At halftime, school officials crowned the Homecoming king and queen: Reid Bachman and Sara Coluccio. The runner-up candidates for king and queen included Jake Gumpel, Eddie Koton, Jack Rosenzweig, Amanda Cammiso, Rebbeca Greenstein and Shellie Mittleberg.

After a close match-up on the gridiron went into overtime, the Cougars fell to Jericho, 22-14.