Homecoming weekend is a full weekend, starting Thursday night and wrapping up in the early hours of Sunday morning. Across campus, around the community, and even on a bus to Michigan, homecoming is experienced in a variety of ways. These 10 vignettes take snapshots of the weekends, from the alumni dinner to the post-game bar scene, and everything in-between.

 “Cut-It-Out”

Knots of college students huddled up outside of Redwood Hall murmur to one another through cloudy breath trying to pass the time before funneling into rows of folding chairs, 

“I wonder how old he’s going to look.”                                          

“Cut-It-Out!”                                         

“Jesus where does this line end?” 

Inside the warm room smelling faintly of B.O. and instant mashed potatoes, rows upon rows of thawing boys and girls sit staring at a vacant wooden stool and microphone stand in eager anticipation of Uncle Joey. 

Nostalgia rises in the form of a song as an out of tune chorus of students begin to sing, 

“Everywhere you look everywhere you go, there’s a heart, a hand to hold on to!”

The song fades out when the majority of the crowd begins to forget the words. 

Shortly after, the faded red curtains billow out and Dave Coulier is in the building. 

Eyes widen as gasps, collective woos, and squeals escape from covered mouths just before an older, mullet-less Joey Gladstone emerges on the stage. 

A powerful voice booms over the microphone,

“Hello the world’s future!” 

And he’s off. 

Laughter ripples through the crowd as students watch David through their phone screens and laugh a little too hard at words like “marijuana” and “anal”. 

Then, David mentions budget cuts as part of a punch line and heads collectively fly back and people search around them for a mutual agreement at how coincidental his accidental joke was, and then…unceasing, applause. 

-Audrey Art

Business as Usual

It was business as usual.The Ashland University Eagles football team was driving down the field against the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals behind their star running back Anthony Taylor.

Taylor came into the game needing just 83 rushing yards to break the school all-time rushing record of 3,943 set by former Eagle Keith Weaver.The feat is significant. The feat is spectacular. But it was business as usual. Taylor gained small chunks of yardage all day long. That’s all he was doing on this drive.Ashland was running the “hurry-up offense” to try and get points on the board quickly. Taylor weaved his way ahead for an eight-yard run, the record breaker. There was no celebration. No standing ovation. Taylor just tossed the ball to the referee and looked to the sideline for the next play call.

Those in the press box were the only ones that knew. They had all the stats in front of them. “That does it,” said one. And that was it. The press box doesn’t cheer. The public address announcer had just finished announcing Taylor’s run. He didn’t have much time to announce the record was broken.“Ladies and gentleman, Anthony Taylor has just passed Keith Weaver as Ashland University’s all-time leader rusher!”

The homecoming crowd responded. There was applause, cheers, and whistles. But that was about all they had time for. The play on the field was dictating the entire mood of the stadium because the team on the field and its best player weren’t celebrating. They were looking for more. Taylor received the ball on the next play, gaining six more yards. 

Business as usual.

-Kevin Stoicovy

Founder’s Dinner

Benefactors and alumni hurry around, meeting with friends and fellow alumni. Students walk about the reception, interacting with the benefactors that have decided to give a part of their life to Ashland University.

An impressive array of hors d’ouevres in the center of the room gives off a pleasant scent. People line up to try the Parmesan stuffed mushrooms, tomato and basil bruschetta, and an assortment of crackers and cheeses. 

In the bathroom, two members of a sorority meet a woman who was a founding member of their chapter.

“Hey Connie! I just met two A-D-Pi’s,” she yells to her friend using the restroom. 

“Ya I know Linda, I heard you,” Connie hollers back. 

The group of sisters leave the bathroom laughing and discussing their sorority. Similar conversations happen all over the reception as alumni and students share stories about their experiences at Ashland.

One alumna talks about how she remembers going to school with Sue Heimann and how the school is a different place than when she went here.

 The Guests sit down and dinner starts. The aroma of rustic mashed potatoes, succulent stuffed chicken, and tender beef permeates the air. The meal concludes with a delectable pumpkin cheesecake that has been topped with crushed nuts and drizzled with caramel. 

“My goal as president was to leave Ashland a better place than the great men before did,” Chancellor Finks tells everyone, remembering the past 40 years he has given to Ashland. 

Two donors are given special thanks for donating 3-million dollars to the university last spring. A third donor, Dwight Schar, is praised for endowing 18.5 million dollars to the school.

The crowd listens intently to a student who thanks everyone for giving her the opportunity to receive her education.

A student gives a benediction and the night concludes as the alumni and students all prepare for the excitement of homecoming weekend. 

—Zach Lindesmith

The early morning tailgate set-up

Saturday started early for the staff of WRDL. We started setting up at eight in the morning. We arrived with tired eyes but our hearts were filled with excitement. The tech crew had to help set up the tent because no one else knew how.  Then we set up the corn hole boards for the tournament.

Throughout the event we had scheduled interviews with different coaches from Ashland such as Cass Dixon AU’s volleyball coach and Sue Ramsey the basketball coach. While the music was playing fans were enjoying the wings and picking through the desserts. The pumpkin cupcakes seemed to be a favorite. All the fans were standing around the tent socializing and eating wings and dancing to the music that WRDL played.

The corn hole tournament was very competitive; there was a Happy Grape gift card and a football signed by football coach Lee Owens as prizes for the winners. All the teams were concentrating very hard trying to beat their opponent. However it was JDM’s very own Andrea Stevenson and Zack Lindesmith who won the competition.  After the prizes were given out, we packed up. While we cleaned we chatted about how successful the event was and how much fun we had.

 —Logan Gay

The tennis team travels to Michigan

It is Friday at 3 pm and we are about to leave for Grand Rapids, Michigan to play against Ferris State University in tennis. 

At 3:10 pm, our coach arrives to pick us up at the Amstutz Hall parking lot in a purple and gold van. 

He parks and says “Hello ladies, are you ready to roll?” while putting our bags in the van. 

We are leaving for our tennis match on homecoming weekend. While everyone else is driving to Ashland, we are leaving. 

It is 9:00 pm, when we arrived at a Quality Inn. While we are walking to our rooms, students are walking to the show of Dave Coulier. Thirty minutes later we are ready to go to bed while on campus, the night is just starting. 

The next morning, we’re eating breakfast, bad looking oatmeal and old bread. 

We are ready to start our matches, while students are ready to start the activities of the day back in Ashland. A 5k is being run at the Rec Center. WRDL is setting up for the Tailgate Party. Tents are being set up for Pizza Pizza Pizza Fest. 

By 10 a.m., we are down 2-1 in our match. We are fighting, running; you can see the sweat in our purple uniforms. Back home, in Ashland, students start feeling the homecoming spirit with corn hole and pies. 

At 1:00 p.m., there is one singles match left. We are sitting next to each other and our heads are moving side to side at the rhythm of the ball. We’re screaming, “let’s go Ashland,” and students in Ashland are cheering at the football game “let’s go Ashland.” 

We are 283.4 miles away from campus, but at the end of the day, the only thing that changes is the place, not the feeling.

-Martina Baca

A pre-game smack in the face

Across campus from the action in Jack Miller Stadium, there was another game being played on the intramural field. The Ashland University men’s club rugby team was circled up on the flat, grassy field. Steven Forbush, the club president and coach, was generating the intensity necessary to play rugby on that crisp fall afternoon. He was shouting, yelling, screaming something unintelligible. The emotion, though, transcended language. He walked around the inside of the circle, greeting each of his teammates with a firm smack across the face. It developed a rhythm, step, smack, step, smack, step, smack. Each teammate took the hit freely, a prelude to the violence to come. He got to the end of the circle, smacking 6’ 8” freshman Alec Temple, who responded in kind. Then Forbush rejoined the circle as he and his teammates each took one step in, then one step out, shouting “We are!” on the first step, and “Ashland!” on the second. After three rounds of this pregame ritual, the circle devolved into a shouting mob. Watching the big game could wait until after graduation for these 22 athletes. It didn’t matter that only two three-tiered metal bleachers held all the fans. For club rugby, the big game was about to begin.

-Zack Lemon

Sitting in Kem 307

In Kem 307 Southpark was blaring from the television. The floor was scattered with crushed Doritos that looked like little red islands in the sea of green carpet. 

Through the open windows the marching band was playing some sort of show tune that marching bands are famous for. 

The beating drums echoed through the parking lot and onto the side of the building so that every beat seemed to hit your ears twice.

Homecoming wasn’t a priority for Jocelyn Bean. At this point in the semester homework was much more important. In her room the cannon blast sounds as every touchdown is made. 

“What’s even the point of going to the game when you can hear every touchdown?” her roommate joked.

Jocelyn looked up from her laptop and said, “Are you seeing this?” referring to Stan Marshs’ rendition of a Lorde song. “Because I am Lorde/YAYAYAY/YAYAYA I am Lorde”.

From across the parking lot the band has stopped playing and the game has resumed. The blaring touchdown cannon screams out one, two, three more times. A sharp crack that symbolizes a victory.

Another episode of Southpark later and all the fans happy about Ashland’s win piled out of the stadium and back to their cars. Their voices bouncing off Kem’s open windows.

“Hey mom, I’m just leaving the game. What? Yeah we won,” says an unknown male voice from the parking lot below. “I think they picked the easiest team for us to play on homecoming so we would win. Either that, or we’re actually good this year.” And his car door slammed shut.

— Alexis Robertson

The crowning of the King and Queen

Chills and anticipation build in ten students as they watched the scoreboard for the first and second quarter, wondering who their peers voted Homecoming king and queen.

The nominees all sat together, the women looking stunning with carnations and dresses, and the men in suits and ties. They waited along with four thousand plus fans wondering who would leave with the crown. 

The crowd was pumped from the 17-7 lead at half time. 

The nominees were escorted out onto the field and watched from the sideline as the band played adding another 8 minutes of anticipation and wondering. 

Finally the time came for the candidates to be announced.  One by one, the five couples were introduced. As they walked to the 50 yard line the announcer introduced them and their majors, clubs, sports and hometown. 

Screams echoed across the stadium as supporters cheered for their hopefuls. Finally the moment we had been waiting for was here, your 2014 homecoming king is Benjamin Isaiah Black. He graciously nods his head and wishes his mother a happy birthday. President Crothers and his wife placed the crown and banner on the him. 

Next, your 2014 Homecoming queen is Kayla Bechtel. The crowd cheered as President Crothers handed her a bouquet and his wife placed the crown on her head and the banner across her chest. 

The school song rang as the winners hugged, smiled and walked off the field to greet their friends and family. 

—Rachel Gollhardt

Behind the lines of AU football 

Energy and anticipation filled the crisp, fall air on Saturday afternoon in Jack Miller Stadium.  

As the canon released a bang that shook the hearts of the crowd, the cheerleaders waved the AU flag and led the Eagles to the running on the field. The band played, the crowd cheered, and the Eagles put their hands in, ready to play. 

The Eagles filled about 60 yards of the sidelines, pervading the air with odor from sweat. Black paint smeared underneath their eyes, tight-fitted uniforms that formed a nice behind and muscles bursting from underneath their shoulder pads. 

As the coaches paced back and forth, following the play, and communicating with officials in the Press Box, backup quarterbacks Austin Bruns and Scottie Slauterbeck flexed both arms and yelling “JUMBO, JUMBO” to the offensive team. 

Overstepping the fine white line that divided the sideline from the playing field caused a gripe with the coaches and officials. “BEHIND THE LINE, BEHIND THE LINE LET’S GO.” Or “Ma’am, please get behind the line” to the photographer. But once the ball is snapped and the play is underway, everyone crowds over the fine white line again. Just like when Adam Wallace and Brandon Gency sacked the Saginaw Valley quarterback, or when Anthony Taylor ran the ball for a touchdown, the players jumped up and down cheering, the coaches threw up their hands, and everyone crossed the line. 

And, of course, what is football without smack talk. Prior to the first snap it’s “Hey 42, cut your hair.”

 —Halee Heironimus 

Under the “Riley’s” sign

 

 in 50 degree weather. Under the big “Riley’s” sign, a smaller sign reads “No cover charge with college I.D.” The bouncer stands between the two doors of the bar and takes students I.D’s, checks it, and then either graces them with a wristband or marks a forbidding “X” on each hand. 

One step into the bar and a sea of students, “townies”, alumni, and friends are crowded around the bar and tables along the left sidewall. It feels like it’s about 90 degrees inside making it seem like an afternoon spent outside in July not a late October night. After making the dreaded walk from the front of the bar to the dance floor one sees the lengthy bathroom lines, two bartenders and one beer retriever scrambling to serve the anxious crowd, and finally the occasional wall creepers, guys who perch against the walls surrounding the dance floor waiting to claim a girl. 

Homecoming weekend has arrived at Riley’s and everyone needs a drink or five from the bar. The understaffed workers can’t keep up with the demands of the packed room. The walls are almost not enough to hold everyone in. Riley’s has reached their capacity, but yet people keep piling in quickly becoming a fire hazard. The room is filled with the roar of every member of the bar talking at the same time. A townie in a plaid jacket wearing a black trucker hat sporting braided pigtails walks in the front door, and students know it’s time to leave. Until next time Riley’s.

—Andrea Stevenson