Teens and teachers alike anticipate the annual celebration of homecoming in October at school for the football team and alumni. In the movies, homecoming is a huge event that has a winning football team, a cheerleader as queen and flash mobs at the dance. Taft has a more inclusive experience. The team may not win, the cheerleader doesn’t win queen, but the dance team could break out into a routine. Listen up and listen well because Taft makes Homecoming a time you will never forget. A typical week of homecoming at Taft will have 5 dress-up days, 4 lunchtime activities on the service road by lower lunch, a pep rally on the field at lunch, followed by the homecoming game that evening, and ending with the dance on the Saturday of the game where the winners from homecoming court will be announced. As a special way to show spirit, the class steerings and DHH program decorate their hall in the school’s colors. This year has shown some trial and error due to the fires in Sylmar. There have been events postponed and even canceled but the student body has had an uplifted attitude in regards to rescheduling, along with a holiday splitting up the week.

The week kicked off with Pajama Day, which is loved by many. The leadership wanted to give the homecoming court a healthy lunch by providing a donut eating contest. Anyone can join but the students running for Prince/King or Princess/Queen are always required. The following day, which was majorly participated in, was VSCO/E- Day. Many groups of friends chose a side collectively. That Tuesday’s lunchtime activity was an ultimate game of rock, paper, scissors with teams competing to reach the opposite side of the hula hoops. Being that there was a holiday on Wednesday, the next dress-up day was Jersey Day on Thursday, with a football toss for the activity. As an almighty way to share our spirit, Friday was red out and the pep rally on the football field. Friday, however, did not go as planned due to the fires. Taft was left without a Homecoming game. The next Monday was supposed to be the homecoming game, however, the air quality was what kept it from happening this time. The floats for the game were instead showcased on Senior Game Day due to the complicated schedule changes, but were later canceled altogether. The dance was moved from its original date of Saturday, October 12 to the following Saturday, October 19.

Despite the difficulties, Taft’s spirit remained. The hallway decorations for homecoming stayed up for next Monday to continue the party. The said decorations were full of cultural references and each hall was decorated based on school colors and graduating class colors. Steering classes worked hard and showed up to school at 6:30 in the morning to decorate the halls. After many posters in the freshman hall were destroyed ASB worked tirelessly to repair them. All of this lead up to the culminating event\; the Homecoming Dance.

Homecoming dance is important to many schools and Taft is no exception to this rule. It was a beautiful night. With many dramatic Hoco Proposals throughout SPIRIT week, this showed that Taft students were ready for this dance, even after many delays. It was not to disappoint, from the music to the decorations. This night was history for everyone involved.

Overall, with the disarray that was SPIRIT Week, the fun didn’t end as the vents stretched throughout multiple weeks. Homecoming will continue to live in the minds of those who experienced it for years after high school and, considering the way this year’s week went, it surely won’t be forgotten.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Natalia Lemus

Ms. Nazarian and Ms. Arena dressed up as VSCO girls.