For the 2021-2022 school year, the Homecoming theme was a road trip across the US, meaning the student body would travel to four states across the country: New Jersey, Florida, Texas, and Colorado. These dress up days, along with the activities after school like Ruff N’ Tuff, Powder Puff, movie night, the bonfire, and more all helped build school spirit at HR and prepared the student body for homecoming week.

To kick off Homecoming week on Monday, Oct. 4, a few of the student body was able to travel to different elementary schools to help get the younger students throughout the DCSD district involved and excited for HR’s homecoming week. 

Monday was also the first day of HR’s school wide road trip, and the first stop was New Jersey. For this day, students wore all manner of sports jerseys from teams across the country to show off their school spirit. 

At 6:30 p.m. Powderpuff took place, with the sophomore girls taking home the gold for their class and freshmen taking home the silver. Tavi Polk, sophomore, said, “Winning Powderpuff was definitely a well deserved reward for the team’s hard work that was put into the game and the best feeling was beating the seniors knowing our effort and athletic ability outplayed the upperclassmen.”

Photo 1 courtesy of Angela Yearous

Photos 2-11 by Kara Lyons

The next stop was Florida on Tuesday, Oct. 5 and for this dress up day students wore typical tourist/tropical attire which included Hawaiian shirts, bucket hats and fanny packs. The students also began to decorate their homeroom doors to match up with the theme. Participating in this activity allowed for the student body to get more involved in homecoming week and get a chance to show their collaborative creativity as a homeroom class.

At 6:30 p.m. on the baseball field HR hosted a movie night, showing the film Cars, since it is related to the theme of homecoming.

Photo 1 by Kara Lyons

Photo 2 courtesy of Angela Yearous

Photo 3 courtesy Carter Piwowarczyk

Photo 4 courtesy of Maddie Hatch

The Falcon family then traveled to Texas for the third day of the week on Oct. 6, and on this dress up day students wore their western attire which consisted of cowboy boots, cowboy hats, bootcut jeans and more. 

Later on in the evening at 6 p.m. was Ruff N’ Tuff on the soccer fields. The Big Tippers and The Fab Five, both teams consisting of seniors, were able to come out on top and compete for the championship at the Battle of the Classes assembly on Friday Oct. 8.

Photo 1 courtesy of Angela Yearous

Photos 2-5 by Addy Rohr

The road trip returned home to Colorado on Thursday Oct. 7, and students were able to wear Colorado attire with some dressed as ski bums and others in hiking gear. Brooke More, senior said, “My favorite day was definitely ski bum day. It was the day of coming home for the theme and everyone went full out for it.” 

Shortly after school ended at 4:30 p.m., various clubs, activities, and sports teams made floats for the traditional parade that looped around the neighborhoods near HR and Cresthill Middle School. They decorated their float based on the themes of western, tropical, or ski bum since those were the dress up days for that week. Following the parade was the bonfire at 7 p.m. where students got to hang out and build excitement for the homecoming football game the next day.

Photo 2 courtesy of Angela Yearous

Photo 1 courtesy of Jenna Levy

Photo 3 courtesy of Jolie Cranford

Photo 4 courtesy of Samantha Romero

Photo 5 by Kara Lyons

HR did things differently this year and had their first ever Battle of the Classes assembly at Shea Stadium on Friday, Oct. 8 due to the main gym being unavailable for repairs. The four classes competed in various competitions like musical chairs, trivia, and big bin basketball. The seniors were able to come out with first place, followed by the juniors in second, the sophomores in third, and the freshmen in fourth. Students wore their class shirts to represent their class and show school spirit.

At 7 p.m. the big football game took place as HR took on their rival, Rock Canyon High School, and had a theme of USA in which the student body wore red, white, and blue colors, or their “skin the jags” shirt. HR was not able to come out on top, and lost to Canyon 49-28. More said, “Coming back from COVID-19 has been odd for all of us and I think we all really needed this game to get out of the house and have a normal experience. No matter the score, the student section was great at cheering on and staying positive.”

Photos 1-13 by Kara Lyons

Photo 14 courtesy of Bas Wolf

Photo 15 courtesy of Ava Kells

Photo 16 courtesy of Brooke Moore

Later that night, on Oct. 9, came the big celebration and wrapped up the week which was the homecoming dance at Empower Field. The dance lasted from 8-11 p.m. and the majority of the student body attended. Bailey Holland, junior said, “It was so much fun, I loved seeing everyone.”

Photo courtesy of Ava Kells

Homecoming is a tradition throughout the majority of high schools and was missed last year due to COVID-19. The students were happy they were able to gain their high school experiences back or experience homecoming for the first time. Tori Baker, freshman said, “My first homecoming experience was a blast. I participated in many of the fun events offered and I made lots of new friends.”

Kara Lyons, Editor in Chief