Selma High School Marvels at Unique Homecoming

Pamela Hernandez, Reporter

The pandemic has caused all Selma High School rallies, dances, and events to be canceled since late March 2020, and as the pandemic has carried on, none of these traditional events have been held during the 2020-2021 school year either, due to safety concerns of COVID-19. However, in hopes of giving Selma High students a traditional event, a Homecoming which is both following COVID-19 safety guidelines and regulations and offering the students a chance to enjoy a traditional event, is currently being planned. Homecoming is traditionally held in October after the football season ends but will be held on April 9th this year. 

Homecoming is the exciting time of the year that high school students anxiously anticipate. Football games, dances, and class floats usually make this time the height of school events for most students. As some of these activities are not COVID-19 friendly, this year’s Homecoming event will look slightly different with alterations to how and what will be in the Homecoming event schedule. 

As leadership and class officers are involved in planning the event, the senior class officers have been working to establish the theme and the layout of Homecoming. 

“This year, obviously, there will be no dance, but it will act similar to years in the past,” explains Senior Class Treasurer James Jensen.  “At the football game, we will invert a video of the floats and skits during halftime. These will be pre-recorded as we are not able to attend the football games. We will, at a later date, have a drive-through so the students can see and vote on the floats.”

 The theme the planning committee chose for this year is Marvel vs. DC. The upperclassmen are assigned the Marvel universe while the underclassmen have the DC universe. The marvel universe has consisted of a bunch of superheroes from comic books. For example, some of the most famous characters from Marvel are Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Wanda Maximoff, along with more. The DC universe includes the classic superheroes from way back which includes Batman, Teen Titans, Superman, and more.

As for the layout, instead of having students at the game, which is against COVID-19 safety guidelines, it will consist of a live stream football game that all students will be able to watch from home. As a tradition, we have our homecoming royalty who will be the top three students who were nominated by their classmates, performing a dance that they have to choreograph between their pairs. Each of the grades is also assigned a float which they have to decorate and design appropriate to the theme. At the end of the homecoming week is when students will vote for the float they liked and felt fit the theme the best. 

There will be no school dance due to health and safety regulations. However, planning is still happening in order to create an equal replacement event. The Selma high senior class is working in order to plan an inclusive virtual Homecoming event so that all can participate. 

“We want to try to make homecoming as normal as possible,” commented Senior Class President Ashneet Gill.

As Selma High students plan its first major school event amidst COVID-19, they are approaching each aspect of Homecoming steadily in order to create an enjoyable event for the students.