By Con Marshall
It’s homecoming week at Chadron State College, with more activities than usual on the schedule because the Eagles have just four home football games on the schedule this season.
Highlights will include the coronation of the Homecoming royalty at 6:30 Thursday evening, followed by the traditional lighting of C Hill.
Friday’s events will include tours of the campus beginning at 1 p.m. at the Lindeken Clock Tower. From 4 to 6 o’clock that afternoon, the Science Departments will host an open house in the Center of Innovative Learning, showcasing the Geoscience Museum, Herbarium, and Entomology collections under the theme Bugs, Plants, and Dinosaurs…Oh My!
COIL guests can enjoy homemade ice cream prior to planetarium presentations up to 10 p.m.
The CSC volleyball team will be playing at home twice, hosting the Fort Lewis Skyhawks at 6 p.m. Friday and the Western Colorado Mountaineers at 7 o’clock Saturday in the Chicoine Center.
The Homecoming parade down Main Street will begin at 9:30 Saturday morning. The football game against Colorado Mesa will kick off at 1 p.m. at Elliott Field. While the Eagles lead the all-time series 20-14, the Mavericks have won nine of the last 10 games.
Eight former Chadron State standouts will be inducted into the Eagles’ Athletic Hall of Fame during the weekend. That ceremonies will take place during a dinner in the Student Center beginning at 7 p.m. Friday.
The women being honored are basketball player Sunni Busch of Mission, S.D.; softball players Allison Hendricksen Hiett, a native of Cozad now living in Weeping Water, Neb., and Casey Williams, originally from Australia and now of Salt Lake City; and Allie Malzahn Benzel of Sidney, the first female golfer to enter the Hall of Fame.
The men being inducted are track and field stars Jourdin Holden and Michael Smith, both Arizonians who live in that state, and football players Logan Stropko and Beau Wendling, both natives of Wyoming.
Stropko also lives in Arizona while Wendling resides in Lander, Wyo.
The Hall of Famers will also be recognized at halftime of the football game.