This year’s homecoming assembly went in a different direction than we’ve seen in the past.
In years prior, the tradition of the homecoming assembly began with the Sweet Sixteen homecoming court walking out one at a time and doing pretty much whatever they wanted. They could dance, do a flash mob, throw candy, and a popular thing to do was have a parent escort them to the stage dancing a popular or well known dance. But this year’s walk in took a more elegant turn.
“This year we have introduced a new concept called the honor court and whereas the homecoming court of the young ladies was chosen by peers, the honor court of young men is chosen by faculty,” said Student Council sponsor Mrs. Becky Kinnee.
According to Mrs. Kinnee the reason that the “do whatever you want” walk was taken out was because it wasn’t showing the reason that the 16 girls were selected to be on the Homecoming court. It was more of a “who can get the most laughs” competition. This year they showed off the honorable side of being selected.
“Ever since freshman year it was one of my favorite things to watch the individual walk-ins and how exciting they were. Each girl managed to do something completely different than the others and it was super fun to watch. That being said, I’m kind of happy at the same time because it takes a lot of pressure off of me — since my dancing skills are pretty much nonexistent,” said Sweet 16 candidate Tara Eyre upon being asked what she thought of the crazy walks being taken out.
But don’t fret if the walk was your favorite part of the assembly. There was a fun video so that you could still see that the girls are real people and have a silly side as well. The video had a group of teachers masquerading as superheros asking the girls questions about things like ‘What is your favorite memory at LHS?’ and ‘What would your superpower be?’
Another change to the assembly was the game played. In the past only 4-6 students would be available to participate; this year the winning class was determined by the participation of the entire grade. The grades formed their separate groups and had to finish singing an iconic song when the music stopped. The way to win was by singing the longest as a whole. As always, the seniors took the prize.
“I didn’t like that they didn’t do the C-A-T-S [cheer]. It was a tradition that they killed! I felt bad for the freshmen who didn’t get to experience what we went through our freshmen year. If it had been a more traditional assembly I feel that the other grades would want to come and participate in the assemblies more often,” said senior Danielle Brooks.
One other big change to the assembly process was voting for the queen. Students were asked to bring their cell phones to the assembly this year to text their vote in when the time was right.
“We think we will see a large increase in student involvement. So in the past where maybe only a couple hundred students would participate, we will probably see at least a thousand kids vote,” said Mrs. Kinnee excitedly. In the past there have been cases where a candidate would simply get many friends to vote for her; this system was a much more accurate reading of what the student body really wanted.
Unfortunately, there was a typo when displaying what number to send for what girl the audience wanted to vote for. All the votes were erased and the students were requested to recast their votes. Other than that, the text voting went well, with Andrea Gattone taking the crown.
