It’s that time of the year again. It’s time for students to start planning their proposals and picking out their apparel.
Homecoming is Oct. 10, and with an earlier date than last year comes less time for students to prepare and more pressure for those preparing for the annual event.
“There is definitely a lot of pressure to make it as good as or even better than last year’s, and to fulfill everything that needs to be done in a certain amount of time,” senior SGA President Sophia Giavotto said. “However, the Leadership class and SGA have already been working on Homecoming week. I have no doubt this year’s Homecoming will be amazing.”
The SGA’s main goal this year is to increase the involvement of students in activities throughout Homecoming week, and SGA members are working on new activities that will attract students and encourage them to participate. Changes in the spirit week and lunch games class competitions will introduce some of these new activities and aim to raise school spirit.
According to freshmen class sponsor Shelley Perrett, daily games will be held throughout spirit week, instead of just on Monday Madness, including fruit pass, where the objective of the game is to pass a cantaloupe down a line without using your hands.
The SGA is also making changes to the pep rally to be held Friday Oct. 9.
“Our goal is to make the pep rally very exciting and get the whole school to be there rather than have people wanting to go home,” Giavotto said.
According to Giavotto, there will be new performances and games, which may possibly include bubble soccer in which students wear a large, inflatable ball to bounce off one another while playing soccer.
“I am looking forward to my first time at the pep rally and to seeing the cheerleaders’ routine,” freshman Lorena Bravo said.
Other big parts of Homecoming week include the floats, murals and dances that will be done by the executive board members of each grade.
However, the freshmen class will be at a disadvantage for Homecoming because its class elections occurred Sept. 16 and its Executive Board formed shortly after.
“The challenging part about Homecoming being early this year is the hurry to get the freshmen Exec Board together and to teach them what the Exec Board is and how to build the floats, murals and create the dances,” Perrett said.
After weeks of putting together a float, each grade will present its float and dance in the school-wide competition, and at the end of the competition, judges will vote for the class with the best float, mural and dance.
“[The sophomore’s] game plan is as follows: beat the freshman, beat the juniors, and most importantly, crush the seniors,” SGA Student Senate sponsor and sophomore class sponsor Evan Rosenthal said.
This year, the SGA wants to have a parade of the floats in the bus loop and leave the floats up longer so more of the community can see the students’ work after the performance.
“A parade is incredibly important to building school spirit and community involvement,” Rosenthal said. “Even starting down Victory Lane and working our way to the bus loop will change the atmosphere of the entire event.”
The idea of a parade is completely different from previous years, since floats usually have been destroyed shortly after the Homecoming performance.
The theme this year is superheroes, and the seniors chose Batman, juniors chose Captain America, sophomores picked Spiderman, and the freshmen chose Superman. Exec Boards in each grade are planning their floats based off of their superhero.
“We’re at the beginning stages for building the floats, but so far it’s looking good,” SGA MCR Representative Sebastian Paez said.
While the SGA and Exec Board figure out their plans for Homecoming, the rest of the student body is preparing for the Homecoming performance and football game Friday, Oct. 9 and the dance Saturday, Oct. 10.
“Many of my friends have started planning outfits and the after-party, so I’m not too worried at the moment,” sophomore Omisa Jinsi said. “However, I’m sure that in a week or so I’ll be scrambling to figure out all the logistics.”
For the seniors, the fact that this is their last homecoming makes the event even more special.
“The most exciting part about homecoming will be the entire day of preparation and the dance,” Giavotto said. “Although, maybe after the dance, just reminiscing with the people who have stood next to you at every homecoming since freshman year and seeing how much we have grown will be the best part.”