Homecoming traditions in high schools throughout America have added extra fun and community into high school life. Some schools have float parades that go past middle schools, throwing candy and building up the excitement for the game. Students in Texas often make large, elaborate, ribbon-like decorations called ‘mums’ and ‘guts’ for homecoming. One school even has bed races, where students build vehicles out of mattresses and compete. Liberty High School has its own fun and unique traditions, such as the ever popular Bod Squad, the unique Grease Lightning dance, and the beloved ‘Anything but a Backpack’ spirit day. Not to mention annual exquisite hallway decorations, and fun theme options. We interviewed two ASB officers, executive president Marlee la Madrid, junior female senator Claire Ashbaugh, and Liberty alum and science teacher Alisa Jeremicah to take a deep dive into how homecoming has changed at Liberty.

HOCO then:

“I love to go to the homecoming football game. I always have. I just think it’s fun, because everybody’s there. There’s the band performing, and there’s drill and cheer. Watching all the people get to perform is fun.”

“Honestly, so many of the things are exactly the same as they used to be. The Grease Lightning dance has literally been exactly the same. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re still wearing the same poodle skirts. There was always the tug of war, and powder puff, and bod squad.”

“Way back in the day, we used to have a parade. Each of the classes would decorate a float, get some kind of trailer, and start the parade down by Maywood. It would go down the street from Maywood and come up to Liberty either right before the football game started or at halftime. When I first started teaching here, I used to take my kids to the parade every year.” 

HOCO now:

“My favorite homecoming memory isn’t a part of the dance. Last year, we had our six hour decorating day where we decorate the halls in the commons for the actual dance. Those are always my favorite parts, because we’re the only people that get to see everything come together, and see all of our hard work just get put up for the student body. It’s just so much fun, because then we just get to sit here all by ourselves just putting paper on walls.” -Marlee La Madrid

“One of our ideas for one of the potential themes, clue, was supposed to be like this school wide, like scavenger hunt to get everybody to find out, like, who is guilty, but we have our spirit days that are a lot more interactive, like one of the days is trick or treating. So it’s just like making this whole school feel more like a community, rather than this just being another spirit week.” -Marlee La Madrid

“My favorite HOCO memory was probably my freshman year at homecoming. We were all dancing at the dance, and there was a huge circle that had formed, and then somebody started doing the worm in the middle of the circle. I just thought that whole dance party like, throw someone in the dance circle kind of thing was fun” -Claire Ashbaugh