As we put homecoming week behind us, there may be some variation in reactions about the whole ordeal. Now, before you go off about the dance itself, and the new rules that were put into place, let’s take a step back and examine the week as a whole, and the new, possible improvements that took place.

The week, of course, had themed days that helped get everyone in the school spirit. However, dress-up days happen every year. So what about the additional events that took place this year?

“Our goal this year was to make the homecoming week different–and bigger, says head coordinator Mr. Cook. The changes were apparent, and some kids weren’t excited for them, but hopefully they were pleasantly surprised because, “the goal wasn’t to change it for no reason, the goal was to make it a week-long event.”

Mr. Cook really wasn’t messing around when he said that it would be a week-long event, either. “You’ve got two ends. You go the dance being on one end and then they say ‘so what’s on the other end?’ Well, we got window decorations to start. So, we gave the clubs options between Sunday and Monday night so that hopefully more people could decorate a window. We started with that, and then we pushed the pep assembly to the beginning of the week to do more of a kick-off.”

With such a strong start, the momentum had to keep on going to get us to saturday. This is where a point system came into play. All of the classes competed against each other in various activities throughout the week for the prize of the inaugural spirit stick.  Activities were everywhere, and points could be earned in multiple ways, like, “the games at lunch, dressing up for points, the teachers dressing up for points, the photo of the day contest, which we [were] trying to push via SmugMug, the powderpuff game, which is on campus for the second year in a row, They got their own night, they don’t have to fight with soccer with that, and then soccer has their own thing on friday night, and then the parade, and then the game and the dance.

“Now, we’ve made homecoming a [week that has] stuff in the beginning, stuff in the middle, and stuff at the end. Fun throughout and more people involved is our goal”.

Homecoming week was really, more or less, a celebration of Cary-Grove. “We sat down and said ‘everything at Cary-Grove is awesome. The sports teams are awesome, the clubs are awesome, the sponsors try to be awesome, and the teachers are great, so we said ‘let’s just see if we can try one way to make homecoming awesome.”

Most of the feedback from this homecoming week has been positive, however, there were some skeptics. Many seniors in particular were afraid that so many changes to Trojan tradition would alter their last homecoming week for the worse. “People are weird with change…all the change is to make it better, and if it doesn’t make it better, then we’ll totally evaluate. The problem with being in a high school is, when you try to make a change, there’s a group that’s specifically affected. To [the seniors], I would say we really think it’s better.”

Although the administration will change back to old ways if their was a majority of opposition, but the reaction was very positive, and it seems tradition has changed.

This year homecoming week participation has been at an all time high. The student body, from freshmen to seniors, all were excited and eager as the days rolled by. Everyone wanted to earn points for their class, dressing up and playing games. The energy throughout the entire school that week was festive and happy, truly embodying everything it means to be a Trojan.