Spirit days, class wars, football, pep rallies, dances. These are just a few things that come to mind when Homecoming comes around.

Homecoming has been a time-honored tradition that is a highlight of the year for many students. At Carlisle High School, Homecoming is much more than a dance; it is home to the exciting Class Wars spirit week, dodgeball tournament, and PowderPuff Game, to name a few events.  Each year, the week gets bigger and more exciting.

For some time now, CHS’s Student Council has been sponsoring the Class Wars spirit week. During the week leading up to the Homecoming football game and dance, the classes battle each other in a highly competitive spirit battle.

This year, there were more opportunities to earn spirit points than ever before. Students could partake in theme days, Minute to Win It games, fundraising opportunities, and fun after-school events.  While participation in theme days and Minute to Win it games was lower than average,  there were twice as many sign-ups for PowderPuff and large amounts of interest in the dodgeball Tournament.

The winner of Class Wars is always announced during the pep rally at the end of the week and there was no surprise when the seniors won once again.

Student Council president AJ DeLorenzo recalled that his favorite part of the pep rally was “watching the freshman eat their wings during the wing-eating competition.”

The actual Homecoming dance is sponsored by Senior Class Council, but incorporates each class council. This year’s Homecoming theme was “Prehistoric Paradise” and the class councils did all that they could to make it a historic event.

Senior class council secretary Grace Echevarria revealed that this year’s theme took a little extra work.

“Everybody thought that the theme was kind of a joke so it was more a challenge than other years,” said Echevarria. “We had to create decorations that were fun but didn’t feel like a little kid’s birthday party so that everyone would be excited.”

This effort, however, was noticed by the student body.

Maddy Starling, a junior at CHS, noted that “this dance’s theme was more evident than the themes in the past.” This is largely due to the overwhelming support of the theme from the student body. A few students even came to the dance in dinosaur costumes.

Starling said, “The most memorable moment of 2016’s Homecoming Dance was definitely the dino fight in the middle of the dance floor.”

Overall, 2016’s Homecoming week was deemed a success. Both faculty and teachers agreed that this week set a new standard for future spirit weeks.