Football games, parades, dances and spirit days. These are all things that come with the average high school homecoming experience, but none of these are just thrown together on a whim. Students and teachers alike work tirelessly to make Homecoming Week a fun spirit filled week.
When it comes to spirit days and the dance the Student Council has been planning for months.
“Not a lot of people see what’s going on behind the scenes,” junior Student Council Vice President Sharanya Dhuma said. “The officers met up over summer to brainstorm spirit day ideas and homecoming themes. We had a form for freshmen to fill out what dance theme they wanted at Grizzly Camp. So a lot of this stuff goes on even before the school year starts.”
While this organization works hard to make sure everyone enjoys the homecoming dance theme, there is always feedback from the students.
“Our theme this year is Glenn City Limits,” Bhuma said. “I feel like we get a lot of backlash because you can’t satisfy everyone obviously but, it’s like, y’all chose the theme too. We just mostly get a lot of good and bad feedback and we take that into consideration for what to do next year.”
Another important aspect of any school’s homecoming is the school spirit. The Grizz Pit is a student organization that is dedicated to creating a spirited environment in the student section at football games.
“We try to do social media which is the biggest thing,” senior Grizz Pit Vice President Dawn Teske-Wright said. “[We do] all the interviews and stuff because those are fun and it gets people excited. Like ‘You’re gonna be there tonight right?’ and that’s kind of the vibe that we try to bring.”
While the Student Council takes the lead on homecoming spirit days throughout the week, the Grizz Pit is typically in charge of spirit themes for football games, this week being “Paint Leander Orange”.
“[School spirit] just shows school unity and support for the school,” Grizz Pit President Brutus Rico said. “If I’m on the field and I see a bunch of people in the stands and they’re all dressed up the same, wearing the same thing and all cheering for the team it shows that they’re not only supporting the team but they’re also united.”