Annual hill painting sparks school spirit for homecoming week

The annual homecoming hill painting competition at Linganore High School is one of the most anticipated traditions of the school year. This year, the homecoming festivities were halted after the remains of Hurricane Ian came to Maryland.

The hill painting usually happens on the day after the homecoming parade. This year, both the painting and the parade were canceled due to heavy amounts of rain in the area. Ultimately, the painting was rescheduled for Thursday, October 6 after school.

The event consists of each class spray painting a design onto a hill on school property by the stadium. This year, the theme for homecoming was “Back in Red and Black,” to recognize the first “normal” year back after the pandemic.

The freshmen class design featured a pair of spears along with neon colors to highlight where they had written their grade and the school name. The sophomores also used neon colors to highlight some of their lettering, but their main focal point was a football.

The juniors and seniors stuck to the main theme by painting their hills red and black with white lettering. Both classes also used spears in their design.

Alex Pietanza is a freshman this year at Linganore. This was her first hill painting competition, and she noted that she had a great time and looks forward to doing it next year.

“It was a good experience for people of all grades to come together to do something fun for the school,” Pietanza said. “We all worked together to come up with a design that represents our school well.”

The painting event was also a fun time for returning students. Junior class treasurer Cassandra Nti painted the hill for the second time this year and was one of the main designers for the juniors.

“I am happy that we were able to do it. It would have been really tragic if we didn’t have the parade, hill painting or banners because that’s all of our homecoming events,” Nti said.

After judging, the seniors’ design came in first place, followed by the freshman in second, juniors in third, and sophomores in fourth.