The Normal West Student Council’s King of Hearts has been a tradition for more than twenty years, and this Saturday, February 8, the show will go on.
King of Hearts is essentially a pageant, where students are nominated to be a contestant.
The contestants perform a skit and dance to be judged by Normal West teachers who are chosen by the Student Council.
“Look forward to the dance this year…the dance will be pretty good. Kiarra King and Benedicte [Diamonika] did a really good job with the choreography for the dance,” Senior contestant, Charlie Moore, noted.
Student Council sponsor, Lisa Nichols, along with three Normal West students, Lalah Creer, Paige Dittmar, and Delilah Kozlovsky, helped in making the show happen.
Your 2025 contestants are Freshman, Oliver Jorcak; Sophomores, Drake Rumps, Jordan Stovall, Mason Sweeney; Juniors, Dane Schlipmann, Alex Carter, Garrett Brockman, Jrue Mangruem, Briar Leenerman; and Seniors Charlie Moore, Braden Ponson, Junior Gonzalez, Carlos Ramos, and Zyon Jackson.
The contestants have been practicing the show since late December for three hours twice a week.
“I did[King of Hearts] last year, and its pretty fun. Its fun to compete in and watch. It is also going to a good cause,” states Moore.
This year the money is going out to the family of Hope Jager, a former student at Normal West who tragically passed away earlier this school year.
“Hope and her sister actually were in student council, and due to her passing, her parents have a lot of medical expenses etc, so we decided to help that family,” Student Council advisor, Lisa Nichols noted.
As the King of Hearts has been a tradition for many years, four alumni will be back to help with lights, tickets, or tech. They are Bobby Dicken, Brian Blondren, Jackson Hendrix, and Biran Sin.
Teachers judges include Katy Reyes, Abigail Primo, Valentine Walker, Cody Hatzer, Becky Frangella, Justin Smith, Kyrin Tucker, Anna Harkins, Tiffany Bernardini, and April Schermann.
The theme for this year’s show is superheroes.
Each of the contestants’ acts will have a form of the theme in their performance.
The categories are ‘group dance,’ ‘pick up lines,’ ‘talents,’ ‘Q & A,’ and ‘crowd appeal.’
The show is set for Saturday, February 8th, starting at 7pm. Tickets to the show are $10 and can be purchased at the door. Expect the show to be around two hours in length, and there will be concessions available.
UPDATE:
King of Hearts was a success, donating two-thousand dollars to Hope Jager’s family.
The student contestants performed many different skits including a slow-motion volleyball game, cooking show, country dance, magic show, and many more.
The crowd had a fun night laughing at the singing, dancing, and pick up lines.
At the end of the show, the contestants were judged on best hair, eyes, calves, forearm, and ears.
Sophomore, Jordan Stovall won the best hair award.
Sophomore, Mason Sweeney won the best eyes award.
Senior, Junior Gonzalez won the best calves award.
Junior, Jrue Mangruem won the best forearm award and Freshman, Oliver Jorczak won the best ears award.
There were also ‘prince’ winners for each class. Jorczak won the freshmen prince; Stovall won the sophomore prince, Mangruem won the junior prince, and Charlie Moore won the senior prince.
The official 2025 King of Hearts winner was Senior Zyon Jackson.
Look forward to next year’s show for another year of a hilarious tradition!
