While Homecoming is an eagerly-awaited tradition that stirs excitement and nostalgia among many, it generally yields strong opinions, including often negatives ones as students tend to have high but unmet expectations for the music and more.
Hoco ‘25 on October 19 was no different. As the night began, the cafeteria was surprisingly empty, with many students arriving late to the dance which had the theme “Hollywood.”
“I got to the school about thirty minutes late because I was finishing up dinner,” said senior Hayley Marshall.
Once students started arriving, the night began to become more lively, for better or worse. A few students decided to crowd surf, ruining what is supposed to be fun for the other students. When danced DJ Von Hill asked the crowd to stop, a wave of boos erupted. Seeing the situation escalate, SGA Adviser David Small quickly intervened.
“If this doesn’t stop, I’ll have to shut down the dance,” Small announced, immediately calming things down.
As the night progressed, the energy picked back up. Just as students were getting lost again in the final moments of Homecoming, the staff flicked on the lights ten minutes before the end, upsetting many students. Hill, noticing the disappointment, asked for the lights to be turned off, but they remained on, to the disappointment of some students.
“Once the lights got shut off I asked some of the administrators if they were going to be turned back on, and they said no, because they were trying to get students to head home,” said senior Jayne Thomas.
The Monday after Homecoming, students could be heard debating their thoughts on the dance overall, the crowd surfing incidents, and rumors as to why administrators had tried to shut down the dance early.
“I heard they shut down the dance because some students were still crowd surfing and not obeying the rules,” said senior Brian Bauer.
Another complaint among some was that they didn’t know many songs on the set-list. “Von didn’t go by the set-list provided as planned, but instead played his own music that was thrown together at the last minute,” said senior SGA member Katie Bond.
For some, the overall sense was that the dance left them feeling underwhelmed. “As a senior, I was very sad to see my last Homecoming end on more of a bad note,” said Thomas.
