West Albany High School, a place where tradition is its motto, has carried out the homecoming princess coronation year after year, yet the student body has never seen three sisters on the court at once.
Senior Nengai, junior Zion, and freshman Maiyan Mollel are all sisters who were chosen by their class through a voting ballot to be on this year’s homecoming court. It was Maiyan who came up with the idea.
“It makes more memories for the little time I have with all three of [us],” Maiyan said.
The oldest sister, Nengai, graduating with the Class of 2026, had this year as her last to run with her sisters all together. The sisters decided to run as one instead of individually. Instead of saying “vote for Zion” or “vote for Nengai,” they used “Vote for the Mollel sisters” when campaigning.
Once all three sisters were announced as princesses, the family affair expanded. Each of the girls was going to be walked out by a male family member. Maiyan is walking with their younger brother, Isaya Mollel, Zion, with their grandfather, Aaron Sprunger, and Nengai is walking with their father, Enkaiye Mollel.
“I kind of feel it’s almost even special, because these are three different generations that get to see us make this accomplishment,” Maiyan said.
Zion said that the sisters had many ideas for school events they could do together that weren’t just Homecoming court, including the winter talent show and going to prom together.
“It’s a bunch of different things that we all wanted to experience together for this last year,” Zion Mollel said.
“It’s really cool to know that we as sisters and people of color won princesses and [possibly] Queen,” Nengai said.
Zion agreed with her sister, saying, “It’s really rare because West is a predominantly white institution.”
When talking about representation on the court, Maiyan explained how it felt cool to be a part of representing diversity on the court. “A first in history kind of thing, but not only first sisters, but also there’s a person of color in every single grade… there’s not a lot of representation in these kinds of things, and I feel like it’s pretty cool that we get to be an example of something like that.”
Zion mentioned that she knew it was a risk to run together on the chance they might not all be picked at the same time, ”I was kind of scared, like I thought it would be really awkward if it was just like two of us or one of us.” Yet, something she is glad she got to do was be an inspiration to those who are worried about running. “ It’s more of [an] inspiration. If you never see people like you in these situations that have a lot of social repercussions, then you don’t think to reach for that.”
At the final stretch on October 10th, the girls each got dressed up and attended the coronation together. The sisters ended the Homecoming game with a big win for the Mollel family, with Nengai being crowned Queen.
