This year’s Homecoming theme is “Out of this World.” The dance is on a Saturday, which is different from other years. In the past, the dances were right after the football game. If you have been to other Homecoming dances, then you would know that they are usually in the cafeteria, but this year, the Leadership class decided to have the dance in the courtyard because April Anderson, our activities director, “wanted it to fit the theme of Out of this World.” Needless to say, this year’s Homecoming dance was different from other years in quite a few ways.
Students wondered how this year’s theme was chosen. The themes for all of the dances are chosen by the leadership class and student council team, who present theme ideas to the class where they then make pros and cons lists for each idea. This year, the “Out of this World” theme was chosen by all of those students. Another part of the theme were the spirit days throughout the week. For spirit week the themes were: Monday- wear your favorite Band T-Shirt; Tuesday- Grout day (wear gray on gray); Wednesday- crazy hair and socks day; Thursday- Color wars (underclassmen wear green, upperclassmen wear blue, and teachers wear red; and Friday- Jersey day.
Throughout Homecoming Week, signs were posted around the courtyard windows. Each grade made a sign to decorate for this year’s out-of-this-world theme. The Freshmen in leadership made the Star Wars posters, the Sophomores made the Dune posters, the Juniors made the Avatar posters, and the Seniors made the Guardians of the Galaxy posters. These signs set the stage for Saturday’s Homecoming dance.
The setup for Homecoming usually takes a couple of hours which is a lot less than they spend for the Winter Formal and Prom. That makes the dance better to set up on Saturday to give the leadership students more time to make sure that everything looks just right.
Even though the dance was on a Saturday, the game was still on Friday. At the game, Barlow played against Central Catholic. Barlow fans didn’t have high hopes for the game which was probably good because Central Catholic won 65-0. The student section dutifully dressed up for the theme, wearing galaxy colors and sequins to shine like stars. During halftime, the Homecoming court for this year was announced. The freshmen Homecoming court was Parker Riegelmann and Natalie Bell. The sophomore Homecoming court was Ciara Vodden and Kamden Findlay. The junior Homecoming court was Jaydan Samaan and Ellie Lawyer. Our first Homecoming Prince and Princess were Addi Knight and Blake Hills. Our second Homecoming Prince and Princess were Camden Pate and Catalina Valasquez. After the entirety of the court was announced, the seniors were given envelopes which revealed Addi Knight and Blake Hills as Homecoming King and Queen. But the fun didn’t stop there.
At the dance, they had picture booths, lots of decorations, cool LED lights by the DJ, and amazing music. Kaylynn Harvey, a sophomore, said, “Yes I loved homecoming and the decorations but I did not like that it was outside. I like that it was formal and on a Saturday, I did not like it after the game last year.”
Other students had other opinions about the week though. Anthony Molony, a sophomore at Barlow said, “No, I did not like homecoming, I did not like the decorations because I didn’t like the galaxy theme for this year. I didn’t like how it was outside because there wasn’t a lot of cool lights it was just dark. I did prefer the semi-formal instead of not formal at all and I liked how it was on a Saturday.”
Overall, the week was a great way for upperclassmen and new students to celebrate Barlow and show their school spirit.
