North Alabama celebrated homecoming with alumni and students Oct. 8 to Oct. 14 with spirit competitions, a parade and the announcement of homecoming king and queen.

Junior Trent Trammel and Senior Brittany Cagle were announced homecoming king and queen.

“When I was announced queen, I was completely overwhelmed with emotion as I thought about all of the people that made that opportunity possible,” Cagle said.

Students are nominated for homecoming court by Registered Student Organizations. Students then vote on the ballot of students for the selection of the homecoming court. The student body votes again after the court is announced to select homecoming king and queen.

“Being selected as the 2018 homecoming king was the most amazing experience, and I am blessed to have gotten to do it along so many wonderful court members,” Trammel said.

Trammel was nominated by Phi Mu Fraternity and Cagle was nominated by Zeta Tau Alpha.

“I am so blessed to be surrounded by amazing faculty and staff, friends and people that hold such a special place in my heart,” Cagle said.

Chris Gorbatoff, Alex Gould, Grant Gunn, Matt Hachtel, Marissa Deal, Holly Dunbar, Erin Shockey and J’Lyrick Shailee Woods made up the homecoming court.

“Homecoming is a moment I will never forget,” Cagle said. “My best friend, Erin Hill, was able to crown me as she was homecoming queen in 2017.”

RSOs competed for “Most School Spirit Titles” in the homecoming spirit challenges. The homecoming spirit challenge is an annual tradition that includes three categories: window decorating, pep rally and parade float.

In the window painting competition, RSOs painted a window of the Gulliot University Center based off the overall theme of homecoming. The window painting competition winners were announced during the homecoming pep rally.

The pep rally competition consisted of displays of school spirit and a skit prepared by each RSO.

Lambda Sigma Phi placed second and Alpha Tau Omega won the pep rally competition in the men’s division.

“For the skit idea, we just bounced around ideas and decided what is more rock and roll than ‘We will Rock You’ by Queen,” said Preston Burks, Greek life chair for Lambda Sigma Phi. “We decided to do an adaption of the song and run with it.” Alpha Delta Pi placed second and Alpha Gamma Delta won first place in the women’s pep rally division.

The Presidential Mentors Academy won first place in the coed division of the pep rally competition.

Winners of the float and parade contest were announced during half-time of the football game. Criteria for this completion included float design, spirit and interaction with the crowd during the parade.

Lambda Sigma Phi placed second in the men’s division. Their float was a yellow submarine and members of the fraternity dressed like members of the Beatles and handed out candy.

“It was really cool for us to be able to sing Beatles’ songs and see the crowd sing along with us,” Burks said.

Sigma Chi’s float theme was Led Zeppelin and placed first in the men’s division.

Alpha Delta Pi secured second place with the theme of rock and roll in the stone age.

Zeta Tau Alpha won first place with a theme of “Rock Tour.”

“I loved working on the ZTA float and seeing it all come together,” said Junior Brooke Edwards. “When we won, we were all so excited, because we knew all the hard work that went into the float paid off greatly.”

Collaborative Education Service Organization won first place in the coed division.

The overall spirit challenge winner was Lambda Sigma Phi.

“It feels amazing to win overall, because we are a relatively new organization and we placed second last year, so we decided to work really hard and win this year,” Burks said.