Gallery • 10 Photos

Gabe Mueller (21) performs his dance, despite the music cutting out halfway through the performance.

Each club that wants to participate gets a nominee to represent their club in the competition (ie. Mr. Stuco or Mr. Track). All of the nominees participate in a friendly competition for Holt’s final rose.

 “I saw it last year for the first time and I was like – ‘I want a shot at doing it,’ “ Andrew Wania (21), representing track, said.

The nominees for this year are;  Gabe Mueller representing publications, Connor Dalton representing Basketball, Andrew Wania representing Track, Gregory Mose representing Thespians, T.J. Riley representing Student Council, and Korey Lam representing Tennis.

 “It was a nomination – we needed someone to step up and I thought I was the man for the job,” Connor Dalton (21), representing basketball, said. 

Because of COVID, the competition looks different this year. Instead of the auditorium being packed full of people, the nominees are only allowed to invite four people and their escorts – masks were worn by everyone. Because of the inability to have a full house, the competition was recorded and uploaded for the public to see.

The contest began with the introduction of the judges – there was Mrs. Chase, Mrs. Hess, and Mrs. Swanson as teacher judges while in student judges there was Julia Green (21), Nicholas Hartung (21), Bailey Tucker (21), and Emmanuel McLamore (21). 

“Participating in Mr. HHS as a judge was kind of an impulsive decision. I figured why not make the best of the year and be a part of any activities that are taking place,” judge Nicholas Hartung (21) said about his participation in the contest.

“When you’re 16-17 years old, it seems like a guy especially, and you get up there in front of everyone-” Mrs. Hess said, “and show your talent, I thought it was very brave.” 

After this, each contestant was introduced along with a short synopsis of who they were and who they represented. This provided a snipet of what was to come and layed the foundation for the rest of the show.

“First we come out in our casual wear, then everyone does their talents, and then we get in our formal wear with your escort,” T.J. Riley (21), representing Holt’s Student Council, said. 

Next came the talents. Each contestant (some with props and backgrounds) performed a talent specifically garnered to them. This gave each individual a unique feel, whether that be singing or WWE Wrestling a gorilla.

“Everyone has their own visual talent – nothing is the same,” Andrew Wania (21) said regarding the unique segment.

After the talents, the judges would speak on what they thought of the performance – whether that be for better or worse. Each judge would be handed a microphone that would be passed along, and what each judge said regarding the performance only assisted in heightening the tension of who would be rewarded with the role of Mr. HHS.

 “I think that Gabe deserves to win, partly because of all of the technical difficulties he faced, but also because he has raw talent that he works hard for every day,” Nicholas Hartung (21) said regarding who he felt should win the competition overall.

“I gotta say my vote’s for Gabe,” Hess said, “when he gets up there and dances – which is something most people would make fun of – he’s so good at it.”

Mueller pushed through his backtrack completely stopping during his performance – and still managed to pull it off with the same intensity.

Then, all of the contestants would do one dance together before the results of the finalists would be announced, uniting them all by a common goal. 

Soon enough though, there would be three roses presented to the five competitors on stage – one by one the names of the three finalists were sounded –

Gabe Mueller, Korey Lam, and T.J. Riley were the finalists for Mr. Holt High School.