Homecoming, which is supposed to be a time of celebration for the legacy of the school, feels more lackluster than anything this year. This may be due to the stripped back celebrations due to safety concerns. The lack of desire to see our football team lose another game. Or possibly it has to do with the kids nowadays having less desire to show school spirit.
One reason celebrations may seem tame compared to years past is there is no hallway decorating. This tradition was ended due to it not being fire code compliant. So instead of walking through the amazing worlds of childhood movies as students walk to class we have photo backdrops. In my opinion they are lame in comparison but it’s not really anyone’s fault the student council did their best with what they could. Having one of our most iconic traditions taken away this year has made the whole event feel smaller, because the backdrops quite literally are smaller. When asked about Mrs Slyvia who has been in charge of hoco since 2022 says, “The backdrop was a good pivot.”
Students also seemed less on board to dress up and participate this year. Sylvia says “The school’s overall weakest color wars turnout.” The only spirit day that had an amazing turn out was senior citizen day. The people who committed to dressing up really went for it but there was a lack of overall participation from the student body.
Another school tradition that was taken away was having the homecoming queen nominees ride around in convertibles during halftime at the football game. This gets into another issue of the homecoming court doesn’t seem to be as competitive this year. I mean one of the hoco queen nominees wasn’t even running in the first place. The only person who really seemed to care about winning was Grant. While his flyer campaign was amusing to watch it just felt like a sad juxtaposition to years past. The hallways that used to be decorated from ceiling to floor were now covered in Grant’s face. While there were other people running it just felt like they didn’t put in the effort to win.
When it comes to the homecoming football game, you know what the whole week was about, the turnout was about the same size as a normal football game. Sylvia says, “I felt more people should be showing up.” Which I completely agree with but I think this comes down to not a lack of school spirit but a lack of wanting to watch our football team.
So all in all, who is to blame for hoco feeling lame? Well that’s a complex question. I think the student council did the best they could considering the hand they were dealt. I think the main thing that made it feel smaller this year was the spirit coming from the students.