The Colors of Boone Central

The Friday night lights shine down on the roaring crowd. Tomorrow, a king and queen will be crowned. Students will dance into the night. But this is one football game that won’t affect Homecoming in the slightest. In fact, the Boone Central Cardinals don’t even call it Homecoming.

Boone Central’s Color Day is a tradition decades in the making. It doesn’t involve football or other sports at all. Color Day is entirely geared towards the other activities that give Boone Central its color: clubs and extracurriculars. Every year on an October Saturday, students gather at the school for an evening ceremony celebrating the Colors of Boone Central, at which a senior couple is crowned Color Day King and Queen.

Nineteen activities are recognized at Boone Central’s Color Day: Student Council, FBLA, National Honor Society, FCCLA, FFA, Band, BC Club, Teammates, Stagemasters, Culture Club, Vocal Music, Cheerleaders, Rubies Dance Team, SADD, Art Club, Bowling, Book Club, Speech, and Skills USA.

Dan Zoucha, a teacher at Boone Central, and a former Albion High School graduate, shared some thoughts on the event. “I think the key word here is tradition. This is something our school does that’s unique from everybody else. To change it to Homecoming to be like another school would defeat the tradition. In our school, we celebrate everything.”

The idea is certainly unique, and it doesn’t appear to be going out of style anytime soon. The practice can be traced back to the 40s, making the tradition over 70 years old. It remains just as popular today. Lynn Webster, the guidance counselor at Boone Central, says, “I like it. I like that we focus on something other than sports. I feel like sports gets a lot of attention, which is good, but I like [Color Day] because it focuses on the other opportunities kids have to get involved in our school.”

One thing’s for certain: this school tradition will endure for as long as there are proud Cardinals to wave the Colors of Boone Central.

                        -S. Louis