This year the Hughson Huskies were grateful to have received an invitation to compete for a multimillion dollar stadium makeover. T-Mobile decided to reach out to Hughson Highschool themselves, and the Huskies never expected it to go this far. This competition included making videos, showing support, and getting together as a community. T-Mobile provided the school with signs, shirts, and equipment for the competition.
Loren Lighthall, the Hughson High Principal said, “At first I was a little skeptical about the whole thing knowing that there are going to be a lot of schools in the competition. As the competition went along for a little while the whole community started to get involved and I thought that was really cool to see the community come together.”
The rules were simple: make videos about the schools football team, attract community support through social media post and collect as many shares and like as possible.
The Huskies eventually made it into the top 16 schools left in the competition, and made their video. The final goal was whoever had the most likes on that one post wins. There were many discussions about people and schools buying likes for their posts to push them ahead of the competition. Teams and schools are now done battling and the final tally for all the votes will be announced December 3, 2024.
Justice Futch, the Hughson High Athletic Director said, “Buying the votes was kinda out of our control, I’m sure it happened for us and I’m sure it happened for other schools as well. We just knew that they are gonna filter the likes out at the end of the competition.”
With the Huskies having this event it brought the whole community together. The whole community was going to football games and showing support. They even had the entire crowd and student section wearing pink for this event. The community also came together when they posted their final 16 videos. Everyone in the community liked the post, posting their stories, and sharing it everywhere.
Presley Wells, a junior at Hughson High said, “It was cool seeing everyone come together to help support Hughson. I really feel this brought our community together as we all tried our best to push our football video and try to get the most likes. I think this opportunity was really great and I am very thankful that T-Mobile gave us the chance to win a brand new field.”