Homecoming is an event that happens in every high school. Students get busy creating mums and planning crazy outfits for spirit days or going to the homecoming game to cheer and make noise for your team. Friends go to the mall to shop for dresses and get ready for the homecoming dance.  This year’s homecoming however has been moved up and preparations are starting to take place only three weeks into school.

According to principal Matt Groff, the early homecoming was based upon the football schedule and when and where football games happen. Mr. Groff said the school has been lucky for the last four years, with when homecoming fell. On average, the football schedule has about four home football games every year and most years have lots of early away games and home games later in the semester pushing Homecoming to a later date. However, this year the schedule had two early home games and Mr. Groff didn’t want to wait until late October to have homecoming due to the cold weather that would be starting. 

Groups, such as band or choir, student council and Dragon Nation have had to adjust quickly to the earlier date. With homecoming being a month early, it calls for rushed planning, starting almost right after school started. “The student body officers had to meet almost every week of summer, and it has put a lot of stress on us,” the student body president, Matthew Quan Dau said. Dau also says that they created a timeline and the start was tight with lots of forms set to go out in the first few weeks.

The homecoming court, which is the election of seniors in school organizations, was also affected. Usually seniors have about a month to get to know the freshmen or new members of their organizations, but this year student council had to rush the ballots and voting, which gave seniors little time to prepare, to advertise and meet the new students. However with this early homecoming, the members on court are still excited to have this experience. “Homecoming feels a bit weird being this early, but I’m super excited to be on court and walk the field with my parents,”  senior Briana Nelson said.