The circus of high school becomes real for freshman as they experience their first homecoming week. Claudia Yoon (9) said that she was expecting Homecoming week to be fun, but also tiring. Yoon enjoyed the carnival theme, but explained that she was a little worried that someone might dress up like a clown for carnival day.  

Later in the week was the freshman’s first class color competition experience. Yoon described it as her favorite day of the week.

“Color competition was the most fun day out of all, because you got to see almost everyone in the school dress up as their class color,” Yoon said. “It was fun to see what extreme things people would wear.”

She also found the class color competition assembly to be energetic and fun, and enjoyed watching every class perform. Some of her favorite activities of homecoming week were dinner with her group before the dance and the assembly after school on Friday. However, she feels that school spirit could be improved.

“Cougar spirit day wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be,” Yoon said. “People didn’t go as all out as they did for the other days.”

Yoon explained that homecoming was just how she expected, with dancing and fun, but it wasn’t like that all the time.

“I thought the dance was fun, but at times, it could get weird and boring,” Yoon said. 

All in all, Yoon enjoyed her first homecoming week. She rated the music at the dance an  8/10.

Sophomores come into their second homecoming week with, as Brendan Holloway(10) said, similar expectations.

“My expectations for homecoming are most likely the same as everyone else’s,” Holloway said. “But in all, it’s a pretty good experience.”

As for the spirit week itself, the sophomores won the class cougar fight song competition, but took second in the class color competition.

“I thought the class color competition was by far the best day of school,” Holloway stated. “The intensity of who was going to win was definitely in the air, even though the sophomores should have definitely won.”

The color competition assembly came back for its second year. This assembly takes place before school where each of the classes sings karaoke. Holloway explained the color competition assembly was fairly cool, but says that it is unfortunate we no longer march around the school.

But that doesn’t alter his thoughts too much on the class color competition. When asked what his favorite homecoming activity was, he said just that.

“It was amazing this year and hopefully it’s just as [amazing] next year,” Holloway expressed.

Ending the spirit week was cougar spirit day, which appeared to conflict with the theme for the football game, black out.  

“To be honest, it would have definitely been better if [Student Council] just told us to wear black,” Holloway said.

Holloway said the dance was just what he was expecting, rating the music 6.5/10.

The junior class had arguably the highest expectations heading into the homecoming week, especially for the class color competition.

“I expect the week leading up to the dance to be filled with fun spirit days,” Cameron Overbeck (11) said. “I also expect the dance to be a fun night filled with good music and friends.”

The weekend started off well for the junior class with a win in the class color competition.

“It was a great experience for our grade and resulted in an amazing reaction when we stormed the court,” Overbeck said.

The Homecoming theme of 2017 was carnival and each class’s respective hallways had some of the best decorations in years. However, not everyone was a fan of the theme.

“I personally wasn’t a fan of the carnival theme and found it difficult to find clothes that fit the carnival theme,” Overbeck explained.

Despite that, he said the homecoming week and dance met his expectations.

“I thought that the dance was good and that the music was better than previous dances, but can still be improved,” Overbeck said.

Overbeck rated the music 8/10.

For seniors, this was the last chance to experience homecoming as a high school student. With activities like powder puff and getting to wear tye dye for the class color competition, seniors like Leah Demas were excited.

Demas explained that she has always had fun at homecoming in the past and was expecting the same this year.

The week started off with some Monday Night Football between the blue and white teams in five-15 minute games of powder puff, with the blue team winning in comeback fashion.

“Powder puff was a lot of fun. I loved playing with all my friends,” Demas said.

While the class color competition didn’t go as planned (0-4! 0-4!), the homecoming spirit week and dance still had a lot to offer.

Friday was cougar spirit day and, at first glance, there appears to be no problem. Except for the fact that the theme for football that day was black out.

In the halls, you could see that people were a little unsure of what to wear: black, blue, or white.

“I liked cougar spirit day, but I wish we would’ve done the theme for the football game,” Demas said.

Demas expressed that the homecoming week and dance were a lot more fun than she expected.

“The music and dance itself was a lot better and more fun than the dances in the past years,” Demas said.

Demas rated the music an 8/10.