on our morning show from WRC or putting the spotlight on Richland Center High School.
Homecoming week is continuing, culminating this weekend.
Joining us we have Elodie Weiss and Kylie Burns, who are seniors at Richland Center.
We have Mr Billy Jones, who is the Parade Grand Marshal for later today, and we have Kerry Stoltz back to kind of baffle us with all the stuff that's going on this week.
How you
doing?
So much stuff.
It's been a great week.
Thanks Phil.
I'm doing great.
Awesome.
All of the dress up days are continuing.
Yes.
Yep.
Today it's a lot of black and orange.
Um, but we saw some great, uh, duos, especially on one of the days.
Um, we had, uh, let's see.
I saw, um, SpongeBob and Patrick in the hallway, Dorian Nemo, Moana and Maui.
Oh, and a lot of, um, castaways with Wilson.
So you could be a duo without actually having to have a partner.
I
never thought about that.
I
know, right?
It was good.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah.
It
was great.
I mean, the volleyball's were plentiful, so.
So did you yourself dress up any of the
days?
We're not allowed to do pajama day in the district office, unfortunately, and so that would have maybe been the one that we all would have wanted, but we're definitely taking part today in Orange and Black, and we had class color yesterday, so the staff has colors.
Ours are white this year, so just some fun stuff that we can do as a staff, too.
The staff definitely takes place.
District office is a little out of the loop, unfortunately, so.
And the theme for this year's homecoming?
Yes, Hornets and Paradise, so the floats.
Um, hopefully the wind is kind to us and the parade and we don't see any, um, palm trees toppled or anything like that.
But, um, yeah, a lot of tropical, uh, I think I saw a, uh, Flamingo pool floaty on one of the floats.
Hopefully they have got that thing pegged down real well.
And, uh, yeah, lots of, lots of tropical sort of vibes coming out of there.
Wonderful.
And I know you've brought back some of the, the old standards because you.
Do you have the skits?
Does he have a bonfire, Christian?
Yes, yep, had a bonfire on Monday after powder puff football, which was so fun.
The juniors were victorious in kind of a last second stand.
They let him run one more play and pulled it out over the seniors there in the last round, and it was so fun.
It was not a lot of community or adults or anything, comments a lot of the kids, and it was just so great to see them out there.
They really had a blast, and then we had the bonfire.
Fire Afterwards, which SkillsUSA and the Richland Center Fire Department, big thank you to them.
They made it possible for us to even do that.
And right there near the football field.
And it was just great.
It was just we had beanbags going and a grill going and some music and really just a fantastic way to kick off the week.
And you like to honor people every year and make them grand marshals of the parade.
And you've done that again.
Yeah, I didn't know who it was for the longest time.
And finally.
the kids are like, oh, actually, it's Mrs. Jones's husband.
And
so.
He has he does not have his own
identity.
Anyway, so we thought it was great and very appropriate.
And yeah, Officer Jones.
I'm sorry, I should say
Chief.
Chief Jones.
Billy Jones, congratulations.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah, definitely used to coming in second to to my better half.
That is for sure.
Mrs. Jones is a great, great individual.
And and I always like to just let her lead.
Sure, that's what a smart husband says right there.
So as an alumnus, though, it has to make you proud to have this honor, doesn't
it?
Oh, absolutely.
You know, it's it's humbling.
You know, the the the student council, great, great group of kids, great, great, great, great bunch.
And and I was honored and surprised when I got that phone call.
Who's going to be like blocking off streets, though?
Are you going to be able to do that and then get back for the parade?
Well, I might have to pull a little bit of double duty here and there.
I might have to throw the
the chief had on and then jump back into the grand marshal seat, but I think we'll have it covered.
That's awesome.
I remember, I remember different things, though, at different homecomings, but I remember when you were in high school, a lot of the things went on at North Park and the skits went on on a wagon and then you had the bonfire there.
That's right.
Yeah, we all circled the wagon, so to speak, right down in North Park parking lot.
We had the big bonfire.
We played football on Crosscut Park at the time, so everything kind of happened right in the park for us.
Back in the in the mid 90s in the mid 90s back in the old days Well, what's it gonna feel like
to ride through the parade?
Um
Well, it'll be relaxing.
I'll have my chief hat on earlier in the day, making sure the parade route is set, and then get to jump in the convertible or whatever they give me that day, I guess, and just sit back and enjoy the festivities.
Indeed, well, there's a good relationship between the school district and obviously, Russell Center City Police.
And you have one of your own officers at the school, all through
the week too as well.
Yep absolutely yeah we've always worked well together and I think you know a lot of that is as I grew up here I grew up here I've had a lot of contacts with the high school over the years and and the school district just in general and then and then once we were able to get Officer Wilson kind of implanted into the school district he's been a great asset up there.
I know the police you're just hoping for a safe
weekend, right?
That's the big thing.
That is the big thing is just, you know, just reminding everybody that this is supposed to be a fun weekend.
Go out and have fun.
Don't be destructive.
But get out there and have some fun.
Enjoy homecoming.
You know, whether you're a freshman all the way up to your senior year, you know, have fun, but be positive.
And yes, please make good choices and be safe.
Do you have memories from your own homecoming when you were a senior?
Did you win the football game?
Absolutely.
My senior year, are you
I do not remember.
I do not.
I do not remember if we won or lost.
But I can remember that Coach Rip, our head coach was Coach Rip at the time, and he put a lot of restrictions on us football players.
If he caught us doing the homecoming festivities that most kids partake in, we knew what a Wiffle bat sounded like.
Oh, OK.
Back in the old days.
Oh,
yes.
And I, of course, would interview Co-Trip every year and there were two weeks where he was uptight.
One of them was homecoming, the other was the Richland County Fair.
Oh, the fair!
He would ban us from all of the activities and make sure we were...
ready and focused to play on Friday night.
Right, because that's where all this focus goes, you know,
right?
Exactly.
And the Hornets will play Dodgeville, in fact, coming
up tonight.
It'll be a great game tonight.
Awesome.
So congratulations on the honor.
Thank
you.
Yeah,
any parting
words you want to say about it?
No, I'm
just looking forward to a good time and some great memories.
Good deal.
We have a couple of young ladies in the studio with us as well, L.A.V.
Weiss and Kylie Burns, who are members of the volleyball team and seniors.
So good morning, ladies.
Good morning.
Good to see you.
Kylie, we'll start with you.
How was volleyball going this year?
It's going great.
We've been doing pretty good, wrapping up our season, obviously.
Moving into playoffs this week, and we're pretty excited.
We finally have our whole team back since the first game, basically.
LLV, what about you?
How's it going?
I'm really excited to start playoffs, but I'm also really sad.
I know that I'm going to miss everything and all the people, of course, but I'm just glad that I've got to make so many memories with so many people.
So
that's
really exciting.
And I hope that we go into this week winning.
Yeah, absolutely.
And it looks like, again, you're kind of meshing a little bit.
You're getting all your players back.
And I even see some smiles too.
You guys are having fun out there.
Yeah, we definitely are having
fun.
What's your favorite play in volleyball?
Is it the kill?
Is it the block?
I think definitely a kill.
Definitely a kill.
It just gives me more excitement into the game and then all of my other teammates run up to me and some of them give me hugs.
And it's just so much fun.
What about you, Kylie?
I really like a good block, like a solo block.
Those are my favorite.
I worry sometimes watching volleyball that you're going to injure yourselves on the celebration of a point, you know.
Sometimes it's like they put more energy into the celebration than they did the volley, you know.
But you guys are doing a good job.
And again, the playoff start next week, Kylie?
Yeah.
Looking forward to that?
Yeah.
I think we'll play it in Noglaris to start.
That'll be a good game.
Got to get us into playoffs that way.
What's your favorite part of homecoming,
Elvie?
I think my favorite part is definitely just Friday, all Friday.
So like today we're going to have so many festivities going on in the auditorium and the gym and just seeing everyone come together and like our class just comes together so much more during homecoming.
I feel like there's so many people that I don't normally talk to throughout the year, but during homecoming we're all best friends and I love it.
You're in it as a team, right?
Yeah.
How are the seniors doing, Kylie, in terms of some of these class competitions?
Great.
We just won on Wednesday.
We won powder puff volleyball.
We beat the juniors, and we actually weren't expected to win that game, and we pulled it off, and it was great.
The underdogs.
Yeah.
Right.
And football, you guys came second with the juniors, is that it?
Yeah.
OK.
There's still time to catch up.
Should have been a tie.
Should have been a tie.
Yeah.
So, well, you know, there's still time.
Hopefully that you guys can, you know, maybe catch up on that today.
So go over some of the Friday activities.
What's happening today, ladies?
Yeah, so the two biggest things are the skits and the talent.
We do those in the auditorium.
Those are always fun.
The teachers always have a skit and a talent, too.
And that's just always fun to watch.
Like, they do really good getting, like, the crowd involved in their skit.
We also play some games in the gym.
What I'm looking forward to today is the wake snatch, where
Usually the boys will sign up for it and they'll wear some wigs and they have to run around and you basically just can't get out if they take your wig off.
You're out.
And that's just fun to watch.
And then like relay races, right?
Those are.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So they're going to like, it's like a Hawaiian relay.
So like one person will stand at one end and then like other people will align with like one person will have a wine shirt, one person will have sunglasses and you have to like run down and dress the person.
Sounds like a lot of fun.
What about a skit?
So what is the senior skill you guys in in that?
Yeah.
Our skit this year is awesome, I think.
Well, can you give us, because our radio listeners probably, this isn't going to be a spoiler, you know, because they probably won't make it there.
So tell us what the skit is about.
Our skit this year is a compilation of some dances, different songs.
Personally, our skit, mine and Kylie's, is a group of five people.
We're doing the Jackson Five.
So
I'm super excited.
And we're just going to show off our dance moves a little bit.
And then there's a couple other groups that are also doing dances.
And then will it all be like a little bit of mash-up?
Which Jackson 5 song are you dancing to?
Beat
it.
Beat it.
All right.
All right.
So that's got the moves down.
We've been practicing.
Wonderful.
Hopefully we get a little video of that.
I'd like to
see.
Oh, I'm sure.
Oh, I'm sure.
I'm sure the phones will be up.
And then what about the truck stuff?
You guys do that this week too?
Yes, we actually made a new truck bed for this year because we used to an actual truck bed and it's kind of hard just to do it outside.
So we're trying to move it into the auditorium.
So someone like made like a fake truck bed.
So it'll be easier to watch it this year and probably like less painful because it's like fake.
So you guys get in there and you get in on the stuff?
I
personally don't do it.
Personally
neither.
We usually choose the shortest
people.
You guys are too tall.
Yeah, it'll
be easier to wedge people in there.
Well, that's awesome.
What are some other things you're involved in at Richland Center High School, Kylie, other than volleyball?
Well, I play basketball.
I'm the student council president.
So homecoming has been kind of like we've been working up to this day for a while, like the whole summer.
That's been fun.
Um, I'm in NHS.
It's kind of it.
And the parade, yeah, that's a big deal.
I think they've got the script of the narration out, but it does take a lot to put that all together.
Yeah.
We've been working on it since like June.
It's been, it's been a long couple months.
I was going to say, cause I think Maddie was here with some parade forms back in the month of June.
So it's been a little while.
So, uh, what about you, LV?
Um, I'm involved in, uh, so student council, obviously I'm vice president.
Um, so yeah, it's definitely been a long run and then also NHS and basketball as well.
Wonderful.
Um, you know, going back and looking back on your, your schooling days, uh, can you think of a teacher that, that really has made a difference, maybe a, uh, favorite teacher over the years, Elvie?
I think I'm going to have to go with Miss Jones.
Miss Jones.
Not just because Billy's here.
No,
no, no, no.
No, um, she's definitely helped so much and like.
Anything that I need I'll just go into her like one day I literally showed up super early to school because I needed help on an assignment and she's right away She sat down and helped me so I love her
great to hear and I know you guys and especially in basketball You'll do that where you pick an educator that that really has meant a lot to you and I always like to see that What about you Kylie?
I'd say Miss Galio.
She's also a math teacher.
I had her like my sophomore year.
I think I just like how like personable she was like
It wasn't always just like going, learn math.
Like, I don't know, she's just a good person.
And what about next year, Kylie?
Have you thought about what you'd like me doing at this time next
year?
Um, yeah, I'm not really sure where I'm going to go to school.
I'm kind of on a toss between like Wisconsin or La Crosse.
I want to be like a physician assistant, so...
Just need a major in something science.
I haven't really decided that either.
Sure.
So you've got a few years of schooling left it sounds like.
Oh, yeah.
And L.A.V., what about next year?
Anything, have you narrowed it down to a few different careers?
I don't know about careers yet.
However, I do know that I'm definitely gonna go to college.
I know that I for sure want to have some sort of schooling after high school.
There's a couple places that I've
been looking at like La Crosse or Edgewood.
My sister went to La Crosse and she loved it.
So definitely going to look into that.
But yeah, still undecided on that major.
Well, good luck with that.
And what about the big dance plans for that?
The theme kind of goes along with the homecoming theme then as well.
Kylie?
Yeah, so we have it right on our school like in like the cafeteria area.
We decorate it to match the theme.
It's still like, informal, like you just wear some jeans and like a nice top, which I personally like that because then you don't have to spend forever trying to find what you're gonna wear.
You kind of just go with the flow.
Yeah.
Looking forward to the dance, Ellaby?
Yes, I am.
Sometimes I try and go off the theme to find a cute top.
So this year I found like a sparkly like pink one, so I'm super excited to wear that.
But, um, yeah, plans.
I'm super excited to go out to dinner with all of my friends.
And I'm just really excited.
So if the DJ bus out beat it, uh, then there's a Jackson five week, that, that, that's going to come
out.
We're going to line up and do it again.
Again, I hope there's video on that.
I want to see that.
Happy homecoming, ladies.
Thanks for coming in.
Thank you.
We look forward to watching your career continue with volleyball next week as well.
Thank you.
Kerry, as far as anything else you'd like to add, you've been listening so
patiently.
Yeah.
I'm just thinking to myself of all the photos and videos I need to take still coming up.
So we have just a couple of housekeeping things for today for any parents who might be listening.
Early releases are happening for the parade.
145 is the primary school, 205 for the intermediate school, and 215 for the high school.
Parade kick sock bet 255.
So you'll see a lot of our kids are involved, but we do have that early release happening.
So for anybody who's needing to pick up kiddos, the dance, the community, if they're going to come out and see grand marches at nine, so dance starts at eight and the kids can start coming in.
The families are usually kind of near that.
the door that people come in for athletics.
And so we kind of keep them there and then they can watch Grand March and then we kick them out.
And then we have a bunch of other stuff coming up that's not homecoming related.
So it's a great week and we'll all have a little bit of a homecoming hangover at the end of it.
But we don't get to slow down because like we mentioned, there is postseason athletics happening.
Soccer will be playing first round at the high school on Tuesday.
Volleyball is at home.
on Thursday.
Cross country is coming up that weekend with their sectionals.
So it is a lot happening really quickly.
And if you want to get out and support the Hornets, please do.
In this post season, we'd love to see our community out there supporting us.
So those are coming up.
Choir concert is on Monday.
So first one of this season if anybody again is hoping to come out and see the Hornets We'd love to have you musicals coming up soon.
Mama Mia Just a lot of great stuff coming up and yeah homecomings amazing and we're we're so happy to be here and finally have homecoming Here, but we we don't get to slow down at all
and the annual meeting.
Oh,
yeah.
Yep school board annual meeting is the 21st and no school that day so you
can take a little breather from the homecoming festivities on Wednesday.
We have parent teacher conferences that day.
So the staff will be there.
Um, there's different buildings, run it different ways.
If you have an appointment or just pop in, um, but parent teacher conferences are happening that day.
So there is no school in the Richland school district on the 21st.
Wonderful.
A lot of things going on.
As you mentioned, uh, musical and, uh, all of these things to kind of cap off the first
amazing, our kids are so busy.
So it feels like school.
started.
We're almost to the end of first quarter and we're not taking our foot off the gas at all.
Wonderful.
Look forward to that.
Billy, have you got your parade wave down then?
I
do.
I do.
I have.
Oh, nice.
I have it mastered pretty good.
Pretty good.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Well, again, congratulations on the honor there.
Grand Marshal of the parade.
That's pretty special.
So anything else anybody would like to add?
No, all right.
Thanks for having us.
Happy homecoming.
Happy homecoming.
Thanks for marketing and communications.
Gary Stoltz, Billy Jones here, chief of police here in Richland Center and Elvie Weiss and Kylie Burns from the Richland Center class of 2027.