The usual homecoming traditions changed due to the football schedule and time limitations. Certain events around the homecoming season were canceled or modified, but the homecoming game and dance kicked off the school year strong.
The homecoming game and dance took place only two weeks after the school year started, compared to most school years, where the game and dance landed around three or four weeks into the school year.
Andrew Ballnik, ASB advisor, said that the home football games were in the first two weeks of the school year, and the next one wasn’t until Oct. 11, a no school day for students.
“We don’t want to have the homecoming game on a three day weekend for students,” said Ballnik. “We don’t have control when the football games are scheduled. We would all love to have had it a little bit later in the year, but unfortunately we didn’t have a choice.”
There was also no Homecoming parade this year, which is usually a yearly tradition. ASB activities director Mallory Ensing said that the parade was canceled this year due to the early timing of Homecoming.
In the last few years, the parade has been around the LHS campus; however, there were plans to bring it back to how it was pre-Covid.
“The parade always used to be in downtown LO, which was super fun because the community got more involved,” said Ensing.
ASB wanted to bring the parade back to downtown LO because of a survey sent out to the student body last year. The survey asked students whether they wanted a homecoming parade and whether they would attend it.
Ballnik said that the majority of the students had mentioned they wanted a parade, but around half of the students surveyed said they would not attend it.
However, with the timing of Homecoming this year, that option was not possible.
“We wouldn’t have enough time to properly advertise and get students excited about the parade,” said Ballnik.
Instead of the homecoming parade, an alternate homecoming activity this year were the hoco games. Teams from each grade were competing for $100 in class funds.
“We had a team of five from each class competing in little challenges, which was not super publicized this year, because of the timing,” said Ensing. “But I think next year, we’re planning on bringing back the parade and doing the hoco games.”