Homecoming spirit week started on the week of September 30 and ended on October 4. The spirit days for this year are Adam Sandler Day, Rhyme Without Reason Day, Country vs. Country Club Day, Decade Day, and Orange and Blue Day. “Spirit week is fun especially when people actually dress up and make it fun and bring school spirit”, says freshman Sammie Orf. Interestingly, this year much fewer Freshmen dressed up for Decade Day. This could be due to 50s attire being more difficult to dress up for. With spirit week occurring every year for homecoming many people think that the themes can get redundant. The themes often don’t change year to year, but this year they did. “I liked the rhyme without reason day because it was something new”, says sophomore Addison Baker. “The repetitive themes are boring after being done for a while”.
The Rochester Rockets Homecoming Parade is a favorite event in the community, taking place just days before the Homecoming dance each year. This year’s parade was on Wednesday, October 2, starting at 5:30 PM. The theme was Disney, having over 40 creative entries, and political floats were not allowed. Teams had over two weeks to plan their float, but some were still working on final touches before the parade began. “We’re not done yet, but once the float is fully decorated, it will look so good,” senior Julia Musgrave shared. Participants competed for prizes for the best floats, adding an exciting and competitive edge to the event. Floats used different slogans dedicated to Disney films like the Alice in Wonderland Float designed by the RHS Tennis team. Winners were posted on the Rochester Live feed: Coming in first place was the Cross Country float with a Hercules Ancient Greek theme, and a second place tie in the girl’s tennis float & RYAA 5th grade cheer.
At the end of the week, the pep assembly took place at Rochester High School for students at 10:30 that Friday morning. The pep assembly was to boost morale and to get all of the students excited about the homecoming football game and dance. The pep assembly was led by student council members Lilliana Moffet and Caroline Nichols. “It was so fun to bring everyone together and be able to boost the fun,” senior Nichols said, “I loved doing it.” The pep assembly included an assortment of things. It started off with a performance from the RHS cheerleaders, poms, and band/colorguard. Afterward, each fall sport got to speak about their season and promote their games; these sports include football, boys’ soccer, girls’ tennis, boys’ golf, girls’ golf, and cross country. After these short segments, students were randomly selected to participate in a relay race. Finally, the pep assembly finished with reciting the ‘Victory Chant’ and students returning to their classes.
This excitement led up to the 2024 homecoming football game which was highly awaited and successful. On October 4, the Rochester Rockets played the Eisenhower Panthers. During the game, the Rochester Scholastic Bowl team ran the 50/50 raffle; the winner, a parent of a former scholastic bowl player, ended up donating her winnings to the team, and because of this, the team raised over $1500. The football game started slow, taking two quarters until the Rockets got a touchdown and put points on the board. There was a serious injury to one of the Eisenhower captains in the third quarter when #3 quarterback junior Garryon Henderson got injured. Henderson was taken to the hospital via ambulance and the game was postponed for over thirty minutes due to the injury, most of the wait time was because they couldn’t continue the game until another ambulance showed up. The final score was Rochester 55-0.
Homecoming court is an honored tradition that brings excitement and anticipation to high schools across the country. “I am not sure where it originated,” student council sponsor Mrs. Leonard said, “but it has been a tradition for over 30 years at RHS.” The high school student council sets the entire week up for homecoming, prepares the student body for court nominations and the voting process, and then announces the king and queen at the pep assembly. This year, the homecoming king and queen ended up being seniors Issac Hicks and Bailey Alexander. The homecoming court was filled with many students from each class. “ I don’t know any of the seniors that were on court but I wanted Bailey and Isaac to be king and queen since they seem very nice and my friends that do cheer have said Bailey is very nice!” freshman court representative Rylan Utterback said.
At last, the actual homecoming dance was held on Saturday, October 5. The dance was open to all students and was held between 7-10 pm. Student council members decorated and prepared for the dance, even though some thought the decorations were a bit lacking. The DJ brought some hits to the dancefloor including Fireball, Yeah Glo, Wobble, Hot To Go!, Yeah!, and the one and only FE!N, which was played four times. Overall, everyone had an enjoyable time and they will hopefully remember it for years to come.
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