Homecoming, an annual event held in October is celebrated to mark the return to school. Usually including a dance, football game and a spirit week, many schools take this as a chance to build school spirit and inclusion.
To kick off the week, MTHS held a Homecoming Coronation Assembly, which took place on the Monday of Homecoming Week, which fell this year on Oct. 3. This is the assembly where the whole school gets to watch the final nominees be crowned either homecoming court or royalty.
Each grade has several teacher or club-nominated students, who then get voted on by their peers with the top six becoming the final nominees. From these six, three are then voted to become homecoming royalty. All the nominees are invited to walk down the red carpet in the center of the Terraceum during the Coronation Assembly and are given a sash, with the royalty also getting a crown.
When called upon, they greet and give a rose to their escort before walking down the red carpet while an MC lists some fun facts about them. This year’s MC was alumnus Steve Willits from the class of ’91. Traditionally, each nominee is dressed in formal clothing, whether that means a dress, suit, or jeans and a polo for pictures taken and used in the newspaper and district websites.
Over the course of the week the school has a spirit week, each dress-up day chosen by Associated Student Body (ASB), which revolves around an overall theme. This year that theme was “When You Wish Upon a Star,” and the halls and dance followed a fairy tale, Disney-inspired pattern. In addition to this, class themes are decided for each grade by their class ASB officers.
“The class themes are a big part of the Homecoming Week,” junior class President Madilynn Beam said. “It gives each class its own originality and increases spirit in the classes. It also allows us to decorate the hallways in a really fun way as well.”
Each grade is given a designated hallway, which is then decorated by ASB and student volunteers with the given theme. This year, freshmen chose the theme of “Lilo and Stitch,” the sophomores chose “Up,” juniors got “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and seniors chose “Monsters Inc.”
Hallway decorating took place starting two weeks prior to Homecoming Week, with students staying late after school and on the weekend to help paint posters, create props out of paper and give everything their finishing touches before being put up in the hallway.
“The poster painting was done after school starting from the week of the class meetings till Oct. 2 when we got everything put up on the walls,” Beam said. “Volunteers and ASB worked together to get the hallways decorated as well as created decorations together. We worked on both Saturday, Oct. 1 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 2 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. to get the hallways completely decorated.”
Although the class themes don’t influence how people dress at the dance itself, they create a community within each class and are included in one of the spirit days. Each theme is voted on by ASB, who also chose the spirit days.
“The spirit days are as follows: Monday is “Aladdin” (bring your favorite blanket), Tuesday is Woody and Jessie [from “Toy Story”] (western), Wednesday is “Inside Out” (dress as your emotions), Thursday is class themes and Friday is class colors,” Beam said.
The entire week is planned out by the ASB officers and advised by ASB adviser Jeannie Brzovic.
“(Jeannie) Brzovic is the ASB adviser for the entire ASB, and each class has its own class advisers that assist in planning and often help out at fundraisers as adult supervision,” Beam said. “ASB has been doing a lot to get ready for homecoming. We had a retreat earlier in September over the weekend to plan the theme of the dance as well as create the groups to focus on different aspects of homecoming, like the assembly and decorations for the dance.”
The ASB Big Six officers also worked together to organize the end-of-week spirit assembly, which included games, the traditional “Supersonic” and “Ice Cream and Cake” dances, a surprise staff dance and an appearance from MTHS’s very own Herkey the Hawk.
Later that night is the annual homecoming football game, which is arguably the most spirited game of the year.
“Homecoming is a formal dance that happens after our football team plays one of the district rivals,” Beam said. “The game that our homecoming dance typically follows is the one where we play Lynnwood High School.”
With Lynnwood as the rival, the victory has bounced back and forth between teams over the past few years, with Terrace taking the win this year by just one point, the final score being 20-19.
The cross country team have their own tradition to start the game off with some school spirit, running three miles to the Edmonds Stadium where the game takes place to deliver the game ball.
Another thing that makes this game so special is the tribute to the homecoming court and royalty, who are called down at halftime to perform “Supersonic” with the rest of the cheer team and student section.
“[The homecoming dance] is on Saturday, Oct. 8 from 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.,” Beam said. “It’ll include a big dance floor, places to take pictures as well as food.”
In addition to food and drinks, the dance included a station to take selfies as well as a photo booth for attendees to get their photos taken by Hawkeye/Tempo photographers.
Originally supposed to be held in the HUB, the amount of tickets sold had grown so much that the dance was instead moved to the Terraceum, where there was more space to safely hold the increased number of people.
Tickets, which were $15 without an ASB card and $10 with, could be purchased at the ASB office, or at the front door for $20. Guest passes, also purchased at the ASB office, were due on Oct. 5 for anybody who wanted to bring someone not currently attending MTHS.
“I’m really excited for homecoming week,” Beam said. “I know it is going to be a blast and I can’t wait for Terrace to enjoy it.”
