Abraham Dada, student council president, came up with the idea for a Mr. West Orange High School beauty pageant at the end of last year and the rest of the student council, as well as student counselor advisers helped him formulate it. It was not until this year that the student council really started to work hard on it and the official pageant was held on Thursday, April 6th in the High School auditorium and run by the school’s senior student council and senior advisers. The contestants for the evening were Derek Lim, CJ Onyechi, Anthony King, Brendan Jackson, Russell Hoffer and Julio Johnson. Phys. Ed teacher, Mr. Joisil and senior, Thandie Welsh hosted the event with principal Mr. Moore, ISS adviser Mr. Zichella and phys. Ed teachers Ms. Cruz and Mr. Mazurek judging the competition.

The first event of the competition was the question portion. Each contestant was given two questions, which covered different topics such as world hunger, global warming and superpowers. When it was time for comments from the judges, Ms. Cruz said, “I can’t judge,” and Mr. Mazurek stated, “I have two favorites because they both mentioned me.”

Next was the best dressed portion of the show where each contestant showed their best style. Mr. Moore commented saying, “I love Derek Lim’s outfit, but I love Brendan’s kicks.” Mr. Zichella also commented saying, “I would like for Mr. Chirichello to give some free fashion consultations to some of our contestants.”

Following the best dressed portion, the lip sync portion started. Each of the contestants lip synced one song each that ranged from the 80’s to present day music with songs like “Brick House” and “Crazy in Love.” Andrei Rosu joined Russell Hoffer on stage to sing a duet from Spongebob Squarepants. “BJax had some provocative dancing, King stole the performance. But if you bring Andrei in you’re gonna win,” commented Zichella. Mr. Moore added to that saying, “I give Russell credit for use of props. King is killing it.”

The boys then showed off their best swimwear. Swimsuit attire featured crayola drawn tattoos, a pink gorilla sporting a bikini and an actual suit with “Swim” written on the back. “King was creative, but Lim had crayola tattoos.” said Mr. Moore. Zichella also commented, “We saw creative apparel, I wasn’t too impressed, I thought I’d see a little more swagger.” The final segment of the evening was the talent portion. The boys are gifted with musical skills, dance skills, poetry, the ability to drink water, and the ability to grow using “photosynthesis.” Ms. Cruz stated, “King definitely killed it, Photosynthesis that was very interesting, and I liked how CJ brought back the old good music.” Mazurek commented, “Anthony was great, BJax, it doesn’t get better than BJax usually, but CJ beat him.”

Mr. WOHS was crowned shortly after the talent portion and were voted for using a google form. The first ever Mr. WOHS is…. Anthony King! When asked how he felt about winning the competition, King stated to the Pioneer, “It wouldn’t have mattered to me either way if I won or not. We all had a lot of fun and I think everyone who watched had a good time too. I thought CJ would win but midway through the pageant though, CJ told me I’d end up winning.”

According to Dada, the student council had at first “thought it was going to fall apart,” but Dada stated that the turnout was better than expected and the night was for sure a success. Many of the WOHS students hope to make Mr. WOHS a new tradition.