Homecoming Week 2014: Were the themes a hit or a miss? (Editorial)
More stories from Anna Hetherington
Students show off their spirit at the Pep Rally.
Homecoming Week 2014 experienced some immensely successful theme days. It was an intense battle between the upper- and lowerclassmen, as per usual during spirit weeks. Ultimately the seniors came out victorious and part of their success is due to their participation in the theme days.
Pattern Day was a relatively new theme (according to various seniors and teachers who said they’ve never participated in one at CHS before) and ended up being a great day. Many people already own clothes that are striped, animal-printed, or polka-dotted so they easily showed school spirit without looking ridiculous. Others were less fortunate and, although they went all out to show spirit for their class, ended up looking like a clown. However, it’s okay to look “bad” during Class Wars because no one honestly cares. The students in McGowan certainly didn’t care how they looked and I saw next to no one in the building not patterned up. This was a hit, in the sense that even though it is not the most original idea, it had a lot of participants but also did not make students (usually) look ridiculous.
Holi-Day, although punny, was quite tacky. Some people decided to go all out, mainly the upperclassmen. I saw some people, girls I believe, dressed as Santa Claus –beard and all. Everyone who participated in McGowan went all out, but a high percentage of who I saw there did not partake in the theme. Swartz, however, although less people dressed to the extreme, had more general participants, at least with what I saw. I would consider this a miss because many students did not even bother to try to dress up. Regardless, it was definitely amusing to see some of the costumes, no matter how subtle.
Related: Homecoming Spirit Week 2014 (photos)
The battle of the grades was put on hold temporarily as the dual changed to Country Vs. Country Club. I saw the snazzy and the shabby in both buildings. While a surprising amount of people actually own sweater vests, others took a different approach to Country Club and wore a suit and tie (cue JT,) although that seems a little much. The Country students went about their outfits with other means, as to be expected. A majority of the “country folk” was dressed in camouflage and while the day’s alternative name was “Camo Vs. Sweater Vests,” I disagree with the logic. Country is more about the blue jeans, high boots, and big hats rather than the ability to blend in with the tree behind you. This day was a miss for me simply because it was not consistent. Although many people participated, I don’t see the desired connection between Country and Camo, and Country Club and Sweater Vests.
The idea of school unity was left in the dust as Class Colors took over. As usual, it was a hit because people are (somewhat) allowed to be uncouth to classmates because of their rank in the high school hierarchy. Very few people did not participate on Friday (namely freshmen who decided against wearing brown and the occasional sophomore, junior, or senior who refused to be spirited) and it varied the most in level of energy. The fully body alien suit was one extreme while others wore a simple ribbon with their class color.
Overall, many people seem to highly enjoy Homecoming Week 2014. Each day experienced people dressed to the extreme and stragglers who believe themselves “too cool” to support their grade. Class Wars was a hit, as to be expected, and hopefully next years themes will be even more successful.
Disclaimer: Articles designated as “Editorial” represent the views and opinions of the author, not the 2014-2015 Periscope staff, CHS Administration, or the CHS student body.
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Anna is a tenth grader at CHS and this is her first year on Periscope. She is in charge of managing the online polls, as well as writing for the Perspectives...
Marissa Steck • Jan 15, 2015 at 10:19 pm
I think the spirit day themes were relatively easy to prepare for because you could use items of clothing you already own instead of going to Community Aid the night before. I think the simplicity of the theme days increased participation and overall made the entire week more competitive and enjoyable .
Erin Newcomer • Nov 12, 2014 at 8:43 am
For senior year this homecomings spirit week seemed to be the best for me. I think that’s because for once my class participated to the fullest and I could barely find one senior that did not participate this year. I feel as if the country club vs. country day was a hard interpretation because camo isn’t the dress that defines our schools “country” students. Even with that mix up I still had fun dressing in all camo that I had to rush to the store to get and being able to see my friends who went the country club road. For me the class color day is always my favorite because I use this day to go all out. Being the color white this year was actually a lot of fun, just because I knew that I was representing being a senior. Of course the cherry on the cake was when the seniors won the pep rally.
Sydney Ritchie • Nov 3, 2014 at 12:02 pm
This year’s spirit week was relatively creative. I think they are repetitive every year though so this being senior year, I only really participated in class colors day because that’s the only one that really changes each year.
Francesca DiPaola • Nov 3, 2014 at 7:56 am
I thought spirit week was great and the themes were right on point. You could see the entire school getting pumped up in the hallways, and the pep rally was the best one I have seen yet. Almost everyone wore their class colors, which shows great school pride, and really united us as fellow students.
caitlyn hair • Oct 31, 2014 at 12:24 pm
i think spirit week was great, i loved everyone’s creative looks. even though sophomores got fourth i loved spirit week this year.
Morgan Hall • Oct 31, 2014 at 10:07 am
Spirit week this year was a great success! I liked the themes and thought they were really creative. It is always interesting to see what people come up with for the spirit days. This year I think the themes let people be creative with it and that always makes the week better when you have people going to the extremes that you never thought of yourself.
Haley J • Oct 30, 2014 at 10:32 am
Homecoming week was great! All the students I think got involved this year with new themes for this year! I say keep up the good work Student council! Its crazy to think that us Seniors of 2015 came this far in life! we made new friends and our lives are started to take a new chapter in life. I’m happy to say but I will miss going to school everyday and seeing my class mates. We’ve came a long way in life but its good to say im proud of everyone that came this far in life. Im happy that we are able to get our life together the way we want. I liked some of the music that they were playing but they could have done better in my opinion. Class of 2015 we DID IT!!!!
Kaiyanna bolden • Oct 30, 2014 at 10:16 am
I think that homecoming week the themes were awesome. I tried my best to participate in all the days I could which was like 3 out of the 4. There were a lot of people who participated in spirit week. Student council did a great job of picking the themes for homecoming week. The pep rally was also awesome. Everyone was dressed up in their class colors. The students and the principles who participated in the games did a great job, trying to get points for their classes. The gymnasium was louder than any other pep rally I been to in my 4 years of being here. I’m extremely disappointed I can’t be here next year for the pep rally. : (
Bry Youtzy • Oct 29, 2014 at 11:05 am
Homecoming week was a great success in my opinion. This is by far the most memorable Homecoming week I’ve ever had.
Claire Hillison • Oct 29, 2014 at 8:37 am
I always love spirit week and I think that Student council did a good job of picking themes. I don’t think everyone realizes how hard it is to come up with new fun themes year that everyone will be happy with. I think they did a good job!
Sarah Ann Jensen • Oct 28, 2014 at 1:45 pm
This year I definitely saw a lot more people participating in the theme days and activities! I think it was really nice to witness so much school pride and unity in my last year here. I thought it was really cool how student council had minute-to-win-it games during lunch this year too! The theme days, though not as creative as past years, were easy to participate in and I think that is one of the reasons for the large number of participants. Overall, I think this year’s spirit week might have been the best CHS has ever had!
George Gilbert • Oct 28, 2014 at 1:41 pm
Although I may be a little biased because of my position on Student Council, I have to say that this was by far the best spirit week I’ve experienced in my four years here at CHS. Seeing all of my friends going all out for our class made me really proud to be a member of the class of 2015. The pep rally was fun too!
Tori Bock • Oct 28, 2014 at 10:58 am
I love spirit week. I don’t care if I look stupid cause I know all my friends will to. I went all out everyday and absolutely loved it and had so much fun.
Kandie Lower • Oct 28, 2014 at 10:03 am
I believe that the only day that most of the students get into is Class color day. That is the day that everyone wants to show their class pride.
Rachel Day • Oct 27, 2014 at 9:07 am
I agree. While sometimes it fun to have theme days that are somewhat challenging, that really reduces the number of people that will participate. It was cool this year to have so many people that were willing to participate, even if they weren’t going all out.
Kenleigh Peet • Oct 27, 2014 at 8:13 am
The homecoming week themes this year were pretty groovy! They were simple and vague enough that I was able to participate in all of them, and so did many other people!
Madeline Winn • Oct 26, 2014 at 4:53 pm
I love spirit week! This year I tried to go all-out with stupid costumes, and it was a lot of fun. I liked the themes this year more than I usually do, and if the fact that they’re better than usual is what got the senior class to participate and win then I am very grateful.