By Symone Sheppard
Staff-Writer
Homecoming is a bigger deal for high school students than college students.
If you remember hearing the drumline march through campus, it’s usually associated with one main memory: homecoming. In high school, homecoming is celebrated more as a way to get students excited about the game and about the following dance. We can all remember back in high school the big homecoming game and dance as the highlight of the fall.
Students in high school are much more excited about homecoming than students in college. I remember, the student run organizations would create many events that lead to homecoming. Students would have spirit week, where there would be a theme each day before homecoming. Also, a big thing was the pressure on who would ask whom to the dance after the game, which would peak interest. In college, I feel an absence of the enthusiasm that is prominent in high school.
I feel like homecoming in high school versus homecoming in college is completely different in the sense that in high school, it is driven more by the students. Students in high school take pride in their school through the pep rallies. My own personal experience with homecoming has been sitting on the sidelines and watching the events unfold as opposed to actually being involved. Due to this, I was able to observe rather than partake. What I remember from observing is that what makes it such a big deal is that it focuses on the students involved in sports and in the school in general.
For high school football players, it is a memorable time. I used to know several football players personally and they would tell me that they were focused on their performance because college scouts would come to the homecoming games. In college, many athletes are already recruited or on scholarship, so they’re playing the game to pursue their career in professional football. For high school students, the pressure is on to be the best because if a college scout doesn’t want to recruit them, then they have to work even harder to be noticed.
In high school, stereotypes are very unavoidable. One thing I’ve noticed in comparison to college is that only select students are very passionate about homecoming. I myself was not one of these select students, but at the same time I did find myself going to the dances and the game because I wanted to feel a part of the student body at my school. In college, I find myself more focused on my degree and while I take pride in my school as a student I know that homecoming week doesn’t have the same nostalgia as high school.
