Grant Wilhoite is a senior at Anderson High School who has been aiming to win Homecoming king since his freshman year. Although he made it to the Homecoming Court during his junior year, the crown slipped just out of reach. Grant wasn’t brought down, instead, he saw it as proof that he had potential, and he worked harder the next year.
This year, his effort paid off. On Friday, Sept. 19, during the Homecoming football game, Grant was finally crowned Homecoming King. With the support of his friends, his numerous campaign posters, and the encouragement of the teachers who supported him, Grant turned his goal into reality.
“I felt like I had some more potential,” Grant said about his decision to run. “Last year, I made it to court, but I didn’t win. But this year, I just have a feeling.” During the first round of homecoming voting, Grant decided to not have any regrets and campaign to the most of his power.Grant and his friends placed posters everywhere around the school, even having his own “Wall of Grant”. With the amount of posters he had, he taped them on the wall, spelling out his name. His teacher, Rebecca Hermann (née Cronk), helped him print out all of his campaign posters. “Shout out to Cronk, she actually printed all of those out”. Another person who decided to help him tape all of the posters to the wall was his good friend Lucas Beerson.
Ever since his freshman year, Grant was never really popular or known. He never really tried putting himself out there because had no interest in doing so until his junior year. He deduced that the easiest way to get attention was to run with someone else. This year he ran with McKayla-Swain, but she got eliminated in the second round. “Now it’s just now me, so I have to represent us both” Even though Mckayla was emilminated, he didnt give up.
Grant thinks that while he respects the past winners, he believes everyone deserves a fair chance at winning. “No hate to Cooper King” he said, “I feel like the rules should say that if you won before, you should not run again. You should have people to actually give a fair chance instead of winning twice”. Grant wasn’t trying to insult anybody, he was just being honest. “There are some people that dont even bother to run because they feel like the same people are going to win every time”. Grant wants the voting process to be fair to everyone,
Even though he had won, Grant stayed humble. “It was fun while it lasted, and I wouldn’t be mad at whoever won,” he said. “All that matters is I made it all the way here from what I did last year.” he stated. To him, what mattered was not just the crown, but having all of the effort he put in the campaign pay off.
