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The crown and tiara have passed once again. Austin High School crowned seniors Sam Deyo and Paige Goetz as its new king and queen Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s very flattering,” Goetz said. She was surprised to be named to the AHS Homecoming Court, and she didn’t really expect to be named this year’s queen. Now that she is, though, she’s very excited for the upcoming Homecoming Parade Friday, as well as the football game against Mayo High School at 7 p.m. at Wescott Field.

“I was really baffled,” she said.

Goetz is involved with several organizations around town, as a dancer at Jane Taylor Academy of Dance and an Apple Lane Child Care Center employee. She participates in National Honor Society, Link Crew, student union and student council. She plans on taking anthropology in college and studying to become a chemical dependency counselor.

For Deyo, the honor was equally baffling.

“It’s overwhelming,” he said. “It is an honor to represent [AHS].”

Deyo is a member of several AHS and local choirs, as well as Jazz Band, Pep Band and Student Union. He also moonlights as DJ Audeyo Soundscape. He plans to attend the University of Wisconsin – Stout to major in multimedia communication, as well as audio technology.

Deyo’s coronation is a little serendipitous to his family, however. Just a couple months after he was born, some family friends let his parents know they just had a little girl of their own. That little girl is Ella Otten, this year’s Homecoming Queen at Albert Lea High School.

“Sam and Ella. They can never be together,” said Lisa Deyo, Sam’s mother, jokingly. “I have a picture of the two of them when they were four, hugging each other. And now we’ll have to get another one of them as royalty.”