Henry Creel/612 Athletics

A weekend full of tiger spirit, this year’s homecoming game and dance headlined the fall school experience. “We felt like after Covid there’s been kind of a lack of school spirit and so we wanted to bring it back,” said Student Council co-president Neela Hammer. “‘All out’ is like going above and beyond and making things as fun as possible.”

On Saturday, October 7th South High hosted its homecoming game against Patrick Henry highschool on the school’s very own Les Barnard field. The game took place at 12:00 P.M. in the middle of the day, atypical for a homecoming game. The game ended with a tough 0-39 loss for South, but not without a valiant fight from South’s Tigers. “We had a couple good hits and throws,” said Brennan Vanvoorst, a senior who plays cornerback and wide receiver for South’s football team. In terms of the score, it’s “usually pretty even against Patrick Henry.” The theme for the student section of the game this year was “pink out,” switched from the original “glitter out.” Organizers believed it would be too shiny and blinding for our players. Despite the landslide loss for South, the Tigers still gave it their all, bringing us to the end of the season with a solid 3-4 turnout for our varsity football team. 

With the game being in the middle of the day on a Saturday, as opposed to the typical Friday night game, it raised questions for some. “The game was supposed to be on Friday night, but they had to cancel because the Patrick Henry players couldn’t make it so they moved it to Saturday,” said Junuh Coleman, a junior at South. However, other explanations have sprung up as well. “​​I also heard that they did it in the middle of the day because they didn’t want teens drinking at night and driving home from homecoming.”

Patrick Henry players, however, have a different story. “They rescheduled our schedule just so they could play us for homecoming. It was in the middle of the day too so we all had to switch up our schedules,” says Rory Wyatt, a 12th grader at Patrick Henry who plays DB linebacker and outside linebacker for the football team. 

South’s Student Council leaned into this year’s “ALL OUT” theme with lots of enthusiasm, and kicked off the 2023-24 school year with the homecoming dance. “We felt like after Covid there’s been kind of a lack of school spirit and so we wanted to bring it back,” said Student Council co-president Neela Hammer. “‘All out’ is like going above and beyond and making things as fun as possible.” This positivity from Student Council was met with a successful 380+ tickets sold, totaling over $1,500 — money that Student Council said will go directly back into the school and future events.

One of this year’s homecoming royalty, junior Jesse Crocker, said that overall he enjoyed this year’s dance. “It was pretty fun. My favorite parts were when we were lifting other people up and moving around, like with the snake.”

Student Council’s co-presidents attributed some of this year’s success to the fact that the dance was in the gym (as opposed to the commons or outside), a new ticket system that streamlined both ticket and snack sales, and enthusiasm from the student body. Additionally, they credited the high level of commitment from Student Council, especially events co-chairs Mamie Slusher and Eva Hoch-Robinson. Planning also started over the summer rather than at the beginning of the school year.

This year’s dance wasn’t without challenges, however. “The administration changed the entrance door an hour before people were arriving,” said Madeline Koebrick, co-president of Student Council. “We had to completely change our entire plan and physical layout of the dance and it was just very disrespectful.” Koebrick and Hammer said that the only information given by administration was that the change was for “safety” reasons. “Safety should have been something on their radar for the past month when we were planning this dance,” added Koebrick. “If they were worried about safety and they thought that Door 1 was the safest option, then not only should they have communicated that Door 1 was going to be what we were doing, they should have told us that Door 17 was not safe at that point.”