Getting out of school early for a pep rally, screaming in the bleachers at a football game, and getting to dress up with friends for a night — Homecoming is one of the most spectacular moments of the school year for many WCHS students. Different from the everyday attire of students, they get to showcase themselves in a new fashion when strutting to the school dance in gorgeous dresses and dapper suits. 

Although the actual Homecoming dance is only one night, the build up to Homecoming lasts an entire week. With a spirit week that students participate in at school the week of, then a pep rally on Friday, right before the Homecoming football game, spirits arise to new peaks right before the prolific night of the dance itself. 2022 Homecoming was yet again a great time for WCHS students, but what exactly was this year’s homecoming like? 

“I thought the decorations were great, especially in the hallways. Everyone involved did a great job of setting them up and designing them. I do wish we had some more decorations in the main part of the school near the cafeteria however,” WCHS senior class president Josh Heimlich said. 

Homecoming week started with in school spirit days (Monday through Friday) consisting of pajama day, country vs country club day, anything but a backpack day, and finally the Homecoming USA theme day on Friday. During this week, there were hallway decorations in four of the largest hallways in the schools, set up by the Executive Board and the SGA’s of each grade level. All of the hallway murals had the same video game theme, and each took different approaches to this by choosing games ranging from Mario Kart to Pac-Man. 

Friday was the start of larger Homecoming events such as the schoolwide pep rally and the football game against Whitman. Although some students may not enjoy sitting in quite extreme heat for October for over an hour, every student can agree that getting out of class early to watch entertaining activities and raise school spirit is a win. The pep rally included tug of war and relay races which included teachers, adding on to the amusement, as well as performances from the drum line, cheer and poms team, and the annual boms performance consisting of senior boys performing a choreographed poms dance in small pink t-shirts. 

“My favorite part of the pep rally was when boms performed because it was so funny watching the guys dance and do the kick line,” WCHS senior Samantha Loube said.

“My favorite part of the pep rally was the boms performance because we absolutely killed it,” Heimlich said.

Friday night the joyous events continued as the football team destroyed Whitman with a final score of 37-3. The student section had a great turnout and was decked out in red, white and blue for the USA theme, while rocking out to Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus at halftime. 

“The football game as per usual was a blast and the team absolutely delivered with their definitive victory,” Heimlich said. 

“I had so much fun at the Homecoming football game. It was my last one so it was a bit sad but I’m glad we won and it was fun to dress up in USA clothing with my friends,” Loube said.                                       

The dance on Saturday night capped off the week as a whole and was the grand finale. Last year, the dance was outdoors which made it hard to set up decorations and students got cold very quickly. This year however, the dance was moved back inside the cafeteria and decorations were set up everywhere. The room was filled with lights, music and dancing students. 

The DJ did a great job getting everyone going and many students had a ton of fun. The lines to get in were very long, but that only made it so that there were more people to dance and have fun with once inside. 

“My favorite part of the Homecoming dance was dancing on the dance floor because when all my friends came together it was super fun being able to dance with all of them. I liked how this year it was inside. It was much more welcoming and I think people enjoyed it a lot more. I always enjoy the DJ, they always make it fun.  I think the dance went very well and there wasn’t much to complain about except for the line to get in,” Loube said.

All in all, this year’s WCHS Homecoming was most definitely a success. Students had a good time not just at the dance itself, but all week. Seeing decorations set up on the way to classes lightened the mood for a lot of students as well as teachers. The school once again did a great job setting up the entire week and Mr. Rosenthal and the SGA should feel proud of themselves.        

“My favorite thing about Homecoming was the same as last year, spending a whole afternoon and night with my best friends,” Heimlich said. “I don’t know why but homecoming was just more exciting this year. Maybe it was the killer decor, music, or just the massive amount of people in the cafeteria but it was far more fun.”