Since the 1920s, Homecoming has been a well-loved tradition incorporated into high school and college student life. Many factors play into Homecoming, with each school interpreting how to execute it. The first instance of a Homecoming event started at the University of Missouri, where a football game would be hosted. Former college alumni were invited to come back on campus and watch the game, hence the name “Homecoming.”
In recent decades, high schools have also adopted a Homecoming dance to accompany their Homecoming football games. This school-wide dance is usually one of the more significant events of the fall season during the school year. It invites all grade levels to come together and dance, as opposed to prom, in which typically upper-classmen are only allowed to participate. Unlike the football games, this dance is not geared towards alums but mainly focuses on the current student body.
Recently, Camas High School (CHS) had its fall Homecoming dance, deemed an overall success by students and staff. Despite speculations of a questionable music queue, the dance was prepared wonderfully. All of the hard work that ASB put in paid off.
This year, an apparent change in scheduling occurred during the planning process of the fall dance. Over the past couple of years, CHS held its dance in late October. However, this year, the dance took place much earlier, on Oct. 7.
Opinions differ when it comes to this scheduling change.
“I liked the early start, in past years I have liked it to be later, but I was excited for it, it was going to happen,” junior Addison Stewart said.
“It did make it a bit difficult to plan for just because there was so little time to prepare, figure out who’s going with who, what groups are forming, and that regard of scheduling,” junior Elli Deardorff said.
Most students were completely unaware of why Homecoming started so early this year. After looking further into the coordinating processes and what all goes into it, the main factor of the Homecoming date was because of the Homecoming football game. CHS has had a solid football season and strategically arranged the Homecoming game against a high school they were confident they could beat to boost excitement and expectations for the Homecoming dance. Scheduling the Homecoming event for a game against a more challenging team was out of the question due to the amount of distraction the event provided. With longer half-times, Homecoming court announcements and other festivities could take place.
Ultimately, the planning depended solely on what the football team felt most comfortable with regarding the teams they were playing against and what games would be more physically taxing than others.
“It just comes down to your options: September is too early for planning purposes; in November, football season is typically done, so October is the window. Then it comes down to what home games you have; we had three in October, and this year, we only had one option,” ASB Coordinator Val Parbon said.
