Parade puts HOCO spirit on display
October 1, 2022
Flamboyant Homecomings have always excited the whole school. When school was back in session in fall of 2020, COVID made it impossible to host a traditional Homecoming with an indoor pep rally and dance, so the Student Council launched the idea of a parade.
“COVID is what started it,” Student Council co-sponsor Miranda Heitmann said. “We had so much success with it, and I think people really liked it. … So, I honestly think that we just took the idea and ran with it.”
Heitmann said now that indoor dances and pep rallies are back, the parade will join the lineup of Spirit Week celebrations for the school. The parade’s first appearance happened solely because of the effect COVID had on schools. After becoming a huge hit, it’s now becoming an annual tradition of sorts.
“It just worked,” Heitmann said. “It was one of those things that was outside of the box. It’s not the same thing over and over. We always do a pep rally. We always have the candidates dress up. And all that’s fun, but if you’ve been here for four years, it’s like, let’s get something new and fresh. Let’s just put a new, trendy, fun spin on literally everything that we do. That was the goal.”
With each year since its start, new idea have been added to enhance the experience for all students and staff. One addition focuses on the staff, especially.
“The Zeus and Hera thing, which apparently we did years ago and we just brought it back. So that’s fun and I think that kids really like voting for their teachers, so it was just kind of a fun ideas.” Heitmann said.
This year’s winners for Zeus and Hera were Mr. Kaden Moore and Ms. Jamie Burr.
During Homecoming season, school spirit is at its peak. With a variety of fun spirit days, including this year’s memorable “Anything But a Backpack,” to excite and involve the student body, the students are really the ones that tie everything together, and the parade only adds to the impact.
“The Black Hole is big, and it’s the big one that helps us with school spirit,” Heitmann said. “But also, I think … good themes. Like spirit days. You have that, and all of a sudden kids are excited. You talk about a music festival themed Homecoming, you know, that’s different. That’s exciting.”
Students have a variety of different parts of Homecoming season that they would say is their favorite. From the dance itself, to the different spirit days, and now adding the parade into the mix, there’s plenty of aspects of Homecoming to enjoy. And even teachers have their favorite moments.
“I love to see the costumes,” Heitmann said. “And watching them throw out candy. I love watching the band perform. With cheer and dance and everyone’s dressed up, even ROTC is there. Just the whole collaboration itself is cool.”
