By Skye Anderson 

With over 100 cabinet members between both sides, two months of intense care and labor went into this year’s College Night season. 

For the Purples on Palmer stage Saturday night, the words “we all have a place in this world” meant embracing each other in victory, newspapers thrown in their direction and a night of shared celebration. 

Purple Side leaders Audrey Paige Robinson and D’Mar Tarront-Milton felt their united side in that moment. “It was our game. It was our victory,” said Tarront-Milton. “Everyone has played a part. Buying a button, going to help clean the floor, Side Space… It’s ours.” 

Upon becoming leaders, Tarront-Milton and Robinson immediately sensed a shift. “It felt like when you realize you’re going to be a parent,” Robinson said. “All at once to have this responsibility and all of these people to take care of.” 

They emphasized wanting to balance their attention between all parts of Purple Side and give their cabinet space to assume their roles. “We have a very self-sufficient cabinet,” Milton said. “So we were able to just walk around and check in rather than always have to be in everyone’s corner.” 

Robinson said she and Tarront-Milton wanted everyone to feel supported but not hovered over. “We weren’t in rehearsals every day. We weren’t at every athletics practice. We weren’t at every anything, because we wanted our teams and our side and our cabinet to feel like it was their own and to feel like they had the freedom to make decisions.” 

Before the start of the season, the Purple leaders wrote out detailed packets for each cabinet position so everyone could perform their jobs with a clear sense of direction. “I think that giving that level of trust to people, it instills confidence. It instilled a sense of belonging and ownership of that part of their job. So people were a lot more go-getter,” Robinson said. 

Purple Side music coordinator and head conductor Emily Brant said this season brought her closer to Purple Side than ever and helped her understand what it means to be a leader. “I loved all the connections I was able to make and truly left this game feeling like I had earned a family instead of just friends,” she said. 

Pit member Kari Payne said being in Purple Side this season helped her find herself after a difficult time. “It meant everything to me to be loved and supported by them through this show,” Payne said. “I found a place where I belong, and I’m eternally grateful for that.” 

Senior Cami Woods experienced her first time being on Purple Side cabinet this season, working on hair, makeup and side space. “A lot of my closest friends have been because of College Night so even after the game is over, I still have them to support me through college life,” she said. “I have been the most involved I’ve ever been this year and I’m so proud of pushing myself.” 

Tarront-Milton and Robinson thanked Purples for trusting them this season. “When it got hard and it got scary, it never got mean,” Robinson said. “And I think that that is such a gift… It was always us against the problem.” 

“We’ve both been so overwhelmingly grateful for the way that this side has shown up. Not just for the season, but for us as people. We have been shown a lot of love and a lot of grace,” Robinson said. 

For Gold Side leaders Madison Smith and Julianna Holmes, this season relied on consistent time management and scheduling. “Every leader wants to go in and retcon a bunch of things and make it all run perfectly and smoothly. Newsflash… that’s not going to happen,” Smith said. “But one of my biggest goals was to be more on top of scheduling and on top of our time management… I think we made great strides to set a standard that will be maintained and continue to grow and be more cohesive in the future.” 

While Smith worked with the production team, Holmes said she got to spend more time with side space this year. “It was really enjoyable to get to work in parts that I didn’t get to work on before…  there’s so many elements going on at the same time that people don’t realize,” Holmes said. 

Macie Mathers, Gold Side’s sign designer and assistant technical director, said one of this season’s biggest challenges was organization. “From a side space perspective, having an organized plan is definitely something that is just harder to achieve, especially on the more creative-focused side of things… but I think we did pretty well in the end.” 

“I think one of our weaknesses as a tribe is manpower,” said Aroush Maroof, who worked as artistic director, assistant stage manager and lighting designer. She said on most days there were only five people working on side space. “Delegating tasks can get difficult and prioritizing what needs to happen first.” 

Head stage manager Olivia Lepczyk felt that while there was communication, it wasn’t always effective. “[People] weren’t not communicating well, they just weren’t communicating in ways that each other were understanding,” she said.  

“We’ve lost obviously and it’s hard not to do an autopsy and dissect every little misstep,” said Maroof. “But I do feel like this is one of the strongest seasons Gold Side has had.” 

Smith said all of the music was done and being rehearsed two weeks before opening night and the set was completed three weeks before opening night. 

“[The show] truly peaked on Sweet Saturday,” Smith said. “I could have cried because of how much heart and passion the cast was putting into the performance. I could see it in their eyes, I could see it in their energy. I felt like a mom and my children were performing on stage.” 

“In College Night, we’re in such close proximity to each other every second of the day… To me, the most important thing was maintaining integrity and compassion for one another even when things got difficult,” Holmes said. 

“While Gold Side may have lost two years now, the hard work, the dedication, and the spirit is not dampened by that. It actually fuels the flame even harder,” Smith said. “I would not have changed a single thing about the drive, the passion, and the work ethic amongst cast, cabinet, athletics, cheer… for everything that they’ve put into this season.” 

Holmes encouraged her peers to cherish the unique experience College Night offers: “It’s an honor and a privilege to get to do a job very few people ever get to do… to have made something that will never be made or performed ever again is such a special honor,” she said. “And to those who want to do the game: let yourself do it. It’s a very special opportunity you can’t get anywhere else.”