The dancing. The music. The football. The pictures. We all count down the days to homecoming every year, but one of the best times of the year is going to look a little different due to the pandemic. Mrs. Schuler and the student council have been working on a solution that’s not perfect, but will hopefully be just as fun as every other year.

Mr. Welby recently sent out an email to everybody detailing all of the new changes this year, and they’re pretty big. The most major change is that the homecoming dance is being pushed back all the way to January 30, if the current guidelines allow.

There are going to be two homecoming weeks, one in the fall as usual (September 21-25), and one in the winter before the dance (January 25-30)— both with the usual spirit days and fun themes. The fall week will conclude with a “welcome home” football game, and the winter week will end with a homecoming game put on by our boy’s varsity basketball team.

“It is kind of sad that we can’t have the full experience of homecoming week along with the dance, but we’re blessed with the opportunities to still have a homecoming week,” junior Alina Kohoht said.

Unfortunately, the homecoming court will also be pushed back until January. Also, the pep rally is going to look a lot different than years before, including a virtual event honoring every senior in sports.

Although there have been a lot of changes, our homecoming week is going to look pretty much the same: spirit days, fun themes, challenges and more special surprises. Our StuCo has been working hard coming up with our dress-down themes for every day during the week. Monday is Comfy vs. classy, Tuesday is Camo vs. Tye Die, Wednesday is Country vs. Hawaiian, Thursday is to be determined and Friday is White vs. Blue.

Dressing up each day won’t only be amusing, there will be a little bit of friendly competition. There’s going to be two “best dressed” awards every day, one for a girl and one for a guy. It’ll be judged by Mr. Long and Mrs. Phillips, and the winners get a $10 gift card to the St. Dominic spirit store.

“Mrs. Phillips really wanted to let our Crusaders still have some fun dress down spirit days during the original homecoming week, so we went ahead with that!” Tori Larner, junior class Vice President, said.

As in previous years, there’s going to be Kona Ice trucks on Wednesday, and we will also have a “Hide a Crusader,” where small Crusaders are going to be hidden all over the school grounds. If you return one to Mrs. Phillips, you win a candy bar!

There’s a lot of changes coming for this school year, and the homecoming season is no exception. The pandemic has taken a lot from us, but if we all work together, it can’t take our school spirit!