Men’s basketball team at Homecoming. Photo credit: Adisa Sobers
By Fiifi Frimpong
On November 20, the York College Athletic Department and Student Development collaborated for the second annual Homecoming Tip-Off event, which was hosted by Shiggy
All welcome to attend the free event that took place in the gymnasium and treated to free food and beverages throughout the night.
Attendees starting filling the gym at 7 PM while music was being played by special guest DJ Star. Over 400 people were in attendance by the start of the event.
Festivities began with Taishaun Forehand-Jenkins, senior guard for the men’s basketball team, introducing the cheerleading team. They performed a dance routine and were applauded at the end of the performance. Graduating seniors from the cheerleading team were also honored, receiving crowns to congratulate them for their work.
After they received their crowns, the host of the night walked in and performed hiviral dance with York students. Shiggy, creator of the ™In My Feelings∫ Challenge that helped Drake secure his latest number one single, was greeted by an excited crowd. Since the popular dance, Shiggy’s instagram account surpassed two million followers.
Shiggy is a Queens native who gained his fame through comedy skits on social media. The same personality featured in his videos was present while hosting the event.
Michael Knight a York Journalism student enjoyed the performance. ™I felt like Shiggy did a great job connecting with everyone when he got on the mic,” he said. “From hyping up everyone by dancing or cracking jokes on the mic, he showed great energy.”
The energy Knight was talking about carried on when Shiggy introduced all of York’s sports team. Each team came out to a different song and received a warm welcome from the crowd. The loudest ovations went to the men’s and women’s basketball team as they ran on to the court and showed off their dance moves.
One on the student athletes that riled up the crowd was Sheahna Roscher. The lone senior on the women’s basketball team expressed her belief in school spirit and her thoughts on this year’s Homecoming.
“Tip-off is an event that we just started last year,” she said. “We didn’t do that my freshman and sophomore year. Things like that are cool. It brings out people from the school, people outside of the school, and exposes all sports teams. I’m a big believer in school spirit and just having people show support.”
Fans from the crowd had a chance to compete against some of York’s athletes. Students and athletes participated in various contests throughout the night. Attendees enjoyed three point shooting contests, soccer games, and a track race.
Rappers A-Homi, Wavybouiqe, and Flee ended the homecoming event with special performances. Nick Fraser, better known by his Instagram name “downgoes.fraser”, is another Instagram personality that was in attendance for the night’s festivities. He was seen engaging with the York community and taking photos with many fans in the crowd. After Homecoming was an after party filled with different types of music and dancing.
The second annual tip-off was a success, according to the associate director of athletics. Carl Christian noted that it’s great to have these kind of events that get the community excited about the school and the 170 student athletes at York. He also went on to say festivities like this will be on the horizon in the future.
“It was great to get that kind of support on campus,” Christian said. “Student government has been supportive and we appreciate it. Overall, everyone had a good time. It’s about school spirit. We’re trying to do more of these events in the future.”
