Small Town High School Homecoming Traditions
Hi everyone! This is a very different post than my usual content, but I like to share aspects of my life to maintain my authenticity & so you all can see a little peak into my life. Last week was my high school’s fall homecoming, & as the cheer coach, my girls & I played a pretty big role. Keep scrolling to read about my busy week!
burning of the dummy...
I’m not exactly sure where the idea of burning a scarecrow-type body of a football player from the opposing team came about, but it’s been a tradition since as long as I can remember. It’s incredibly morbid & offensive when I think about it lol but in a small town, nobody really questions why things are the way they are — you just kind of roll with it. My dad & I got together one evening last week & bought some $10 sweats & a crewneck from Walmart & stuffed it with hay from a family friend’s burn pile. My dad had to cut some wood to screw together to help him stand up on his own, but we were both pretty pleased with our final product. Our art department offered to make his head / helmet out of paper mache & they did a fabulous job!
Because of the boards we placed to hold him up straight, it made finding a place in my Rav4 pretty challenging! We ended up laying my front passenger seat all the way down & laying the dummy down next to me. It was incredibly creepy, especially at night! All you could see was this large figure laying all the way down in my car!
This is what he looked like once we finally got him stood up!
As awful as this idea is, it really does get the students in the school spirit & pumped up for the homecoming game. The football boys took selfies with the burning dummy, gave speeches thanking their classmates for their support, & even ended with a school-wide huddle chanting our school name & mascot!
candidate games...
The game we chose for our candidates to play was like a “how well do you know your partner” type of game. All candidates were asked questions prior to the actual game. During our game we would ask a candidate what they thought their partner’s answer was. Here are some examples of the questions we asked:
Dogs vs. cats?
Would you rather eat pizza or ice cream?
If you could be an animal for a day, what would you be?
What is your favorite food?
What is your middle name?
What is your favorite color?
If they got it wrong, they BOTH had to eat something. The idea behind our food choices was to come up with things that looked normal, but were actually really gross. I’ll share all of our foods below! There’s only one that I didn’t get a picture of & that was our “cake pops”. It was actually a brussel sprout on a stick covered in chocolate & sprinkles. Looked a lot like a cake pop, but definitely didn’t taste like one!
vanilla pudding with sprinkles … aka mayo with sprinkles
oreos … aka oreos with toothpaste instead of the white frosting
The kids actually liked the one & said it tasted like a York Peppermint Pattie!
chocolate cupcakes with frosting & sprinkles … aka chocolate cupcakes with mustard & mayo as frosting
chocolate ice cream bar … aka a hotdog on a stick covered in chocolate & sprinkles
For me, this one was the grossest. It was absolutely disgusting to make & my fingers smelled like hotdogs for hours, no matter how many times I washed them!
pep rally & football game...
The cheerleaders hosted a pep rally for the high school at the end of the school day on Friday. We played a couple of games, did a dance, & four lucky students got to pie four of our faculty members!! I didn’t get any pictures of it, but it was super stinkin’ fun!
Then we had our home football game where we crowned our Homecoming King & Queen! (Also didn’t get any pics of this lol).
parade...
Saturday morning was the town parade! The cheerleaders & I rode in it & threw out candy! It was a perfect end to a super fun (& busy) week!
Do you have any homecoming traditions in your town? Favorite homecoming memories? Share them below!!
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