On Oct. 6 during the annual Homecoming football game’s halftime, ASB presented an elaborate show including class dances, presentation of the homecoming court and the homecoming royalty reveal. This event was planned to spark excitement for the upcoming Homecoming dance, which took place the next day at the school.
Incorporating the use of loud music, bright lights, flamboyant backdrops and a red carpet, the halftime show started with ASB presenting the “mixtape” that held the winners of senior Homecoming royalty.
Introducing all of the finalists for Senior Homecoming Court, four boys and four girls each walked out, ready for the announcement of the results of voting. The finalists for Homecoming Court included Ayden Smith, Chris Vazquez, Marcus Macabitas, Izzy Rodriguez, Brooke Cooperrider, Maci Whitesides, Amira Salazar and Brianna Jones.
However, before revealing the winners, every class, in order from freshmen to seniors, performed a choreographed and practiced dance following the theme of the grade level.
Sania Mirarefin (12) comments on the show, saying, “It was really exciting to watch because of how organized it was, and a lot of my friends were performing so it was nice to see that too.”
Each grade performed their routines in accordance with the themes established for them relating to the overall theme of “Mixtape.” Freshmen were rock, sophomores were disco, juniors were pop and seniors were country.
Although many participated in the show from every class, participation notably increased as the grades did, with seniors by far having the most members in their group.
Jayme Chen (12), who performed with the senior class during the halftime show, says about her experience, “I had a lot of fun practicing and bonding with other people. I’m glad I was a part of the show my senior year.”
After the performances, ASB announced the winners of voting for Homecoming Royalty: Ayden Smith and Izzy Rodriguez. They received crowns and sashes, an honor for the Homecoming dance that would take place the following day.
Of all the home varsity football games during the season, the Homecoming game is undoubtedly the most attended and anticipated , with much of this higher attendance attributed to the elaborate halftime show that takes place. Typically, the halftime shows during the football games include performances by the Dance Team, Pep Squad and Marching Band. None of these groups performed for the Homecoming game because all of the time was allotted to this specific halftime show that was already scripted out to fill nearly the entire 20 minute halftime break between the second and third quarter.
As Homecoming is the first dance of the year, it often sets the tone for the rest of the school year, making it important for ASB to create such excitement for it in ways such as the halftime show. For other dances such as Winter Formal, a pep rally is often used to hype up the student body. The Homecoming Pep Rally already took place weeks prior when announcing the theme, but other dances use pep rallies on a larger scale since there are no football games for the rest of the year.
