By Louis Zylka
The 830 Times
Del Rio High School continued celebrating its homecoming week Wednesday with the annual Homecoming parade, pep rally at Walter Levermann Rams Stadium and a bonfire ignited by the seniors of the Class of 2023.
Although the students had a huge role in creating the bonfire, Bill Davis, who teaches mathematics and engineering at the Career and Technical Education Center, oversaw the event. Davis said he has been involved with preparing the school’s bonfire for more than 16 years. He said Del Rio High School Student Council Sponsor Alejandra Torres recruited him years ago and he’s felt lucky to be a part of the event.
The bonfire’s ignition and it’s continued burn was shown on the large screen of the brand new scoreboard inside the stadium, allowing fans who had filed in to watch the pep rally to get a better few of the fiery tradition. The bonfire itself is intended to demonstrate Del Rio’s “burning desire” to beat its homecoming game opponent, which this year is Laredo United South.
A number of high school seniors joined throughout the week to help donate and bring wooden pallets to a designated area several yards outside the stadium. Davis said this year it was easy getting clean materials and recruiting help from the school.
“The students did a good job and they are well organized,” Davis said. “They started with a small group until the last day and then they had a larger group.”
During the week, seniors gathered materials from around the city to bring to the location of the bonfire. Davis left the gates open until Tuesday night to allow students to drop off as much wood as they had. Joshue Bernal, one of the seniors, said he’d helped volunteer since Sunday morning.
“It was pretty fun stacking the pallets and meeting other seniors I didn’t know and now I know them more,” Bernal said.
Senior Luke Gilliam said Davis has been in charge of the physical side of the bonfire preparation. He said the engineering teacher always makes sure everything is done correctly and safely to avoid causing accidents or polluting the air.
“I don’t have him as a teacher but he treats everyone like they are his own students, and I always get pointers and advice when I see him,” Gilliam said.
Davis said the bonfire is one of the few events where all kinds of kids, no matter which groups they come from, can join together and work as a team. Davis’ wife Linda said she and her husband appreciate seeing the variety of students.
“Students end up working together to create (the bonfire) and working together is a good thing to see from them,” Linda said.
Thirty seniors were chosen to meet at 7:15 p.m. and use torches made by Davis to light up the mountain of wood. The morning of the pep rally, the engineering teacher met with the Del Rio Fire Department chief to receive the approval to light the bonfire, which burned for about an hour.
