The 2006 Homecoming Queen will make her way back to Western tonight to give away her crown on Saturday afternoon.

BryAnn Roth will be back at Western for the Homecoming game to pass her title on to this year’s queen.

“I’m not sad about giving my crown away; I am more excited for the next girl,” she said.

The 2007 Homecoming Queen will be crowned during halftime of Saturday’s game against Troy.

It’s a huge honor just to be nominated for the court by peers, she said.

Roth, an alumna from Neenah, Wis., was nominated for Homecoming Queen by her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi.

ADPi members pulled together and managed a “queen sweep” during last year’s Homecoming. The sorority won the banner competition and placed in the float competition, in addition to being represented by the Homecoming Queen.

This year’s ADPi vice president, Sara Smith, said the sorority has been the overall Homecoming winner for the past two years, and members hope to be again this year.

They have two Homecoming Queen candidates in their sorority this year. One was nominated by the sorority and the other by the Spirit Masters.

Most candidates created Facebook groups to campaign, but Roth chose not to. She relied on her sorority sisters to create posters for her and spread her name by word of mouth.

But getting the majority peer vote isn’t the only factor in becoming queen.

Selecting Homecoming Queen involves more than just tallying student votes, Greek Affairs Coordinator Gary Wiser said.

Candidates must go through interviews that are conducted by a committee made up of faculty, staff and one student.

“They are trying to find the best representative for the university,” Wiser said.

Candidates are asked a series of questions, such as what Western means to them and what being selected as Homecoming Queen would mean to them.

“Being crowned Homecoming Queen was very special to me because it was a testament of my hard work and the investment I made in WKU,” Roth said.

Roth explained that even though it was a big honor for her to be chosen as queen, her week was more about celebrating Homecoming and Western in general.

In the past, her favorite Homecoming activity had been the parade, but rain caused it to be canceled. In its place, Roth said, was the day of Homecoming itself.

Roth was extremely busy the day of Homecoming.

She had to divide her time between tailgating with the Spirit Masters and ADPi. Later, she attended the School of Journalism and Broadcasting New Media Society induction ceremony and visited with her parents, who flew in for the crowning.

Then, she started getting ready for the crowning ceremony.

“The week was a lot of fun,” Roth said.

Reach Danielle Bullock at news@chherald.com.