Jr. Sydney Wilcox looked around her broadcasting class confused; she realized only two students were participating in Throwback Thursday, when just a day before the majority of students were wearing pink for awareness.
What happened?
Homecoming 2023 had mixed reviews from West Ottawa students.
The night everyone had been looking forward to since the start of the school year did not live up to students’ expectations. The hours spent getting ready, taking pictures, and going out to eat–the anticipation for the great night ahead–slowly diminished once students arrived at the dance.
Friday night. Seven o’clock kickoff. It’s the football game students, teachers, and parents look forward to all year. The Homecoming court is announced and the long awaited king and queen are crowned. This year, the senior Black Hole leaders Eli Armstrong, Charlie Racelis, and Emma Defries chose White Out for the student section theme–a yearly tradition. The weather was not in our favor that night. Pouring rain and freezing temperatures made the conditions less than ideal.
However, many students remained supportive of our football team. Soph. Kyler Comment, one of the loudest voices at the games, said, “The homecoming game was lit. We killed Grand Haven and it was the best game all year.”
Comment said “The rain wasn’t even that bad. Students need to stay and support our team.” Yes, the rain is uncomfortable, but showing up and supporting is very important.
Despite the rain, our 2023 homecoming court still stunned and amazed everyone. Coming out on top, Matthew Harrison and Gabby Reynolds took King and Queen. Next year, let’s hope the weather is in our favor, so more people will stay the entirety of the game, and our court will be comfortable.
Schools can’t have a dance without good music. However, WO thought we could. One of the biggest complaints about Saturday night’s dance was the music. Along with the DJ himself, attendees of homecoming did not feel that the requested songs were played.
The school district sent out a form for requests on October 3, eleven days from the dance. Eleven days should have been plenty of time to go through the songs and get them sent over to our DJ for the night. Whenever a song was requested for the DJ at the dance, it would either get played and shut down immediately by the DJ or one of the principals; not even played at all, or played for a few seconds before getting remixed with a Taylor Swift song. When unpopular songs were played, students would boo the song and the DJ would not listen. A huge part of dancing is the music, and without music that everyone can enjoy, the dance loses the element of fun that needs to be present.
Besides the dance, spirit days are supposed to encourage excitement among students but this year the excitement was nonexistent. Monday was PJ day, Tuesday was sports day, Wednesday we wore pink (for awareness), we had Throwback Thursday, and Friday was black and white day.
A popular voice at West Ottawa who has a lot of opinions, Mr. Jaeger, talked about Wednesday’s theme. “Raising awareness about cancer, for programs seeking to make treatments more affordable, and to find a cure, HAS to be good, and socially responsible, something we should definitely support and promote.” Inspired by the popular quote from Mean Girls, West Ottawa put a spin on the quote and brought awareness to breast cancer. Students, teachers, and administrators seem to be in favor of the “We Wear Pink for Awareness” spirit day. But the other spirit days didn’t seem to bring as much excitement to students.
Junior class president Giovanni Salinas said “I thought the spirit day themes were pretty simple, which made it easy for everyone to participate. However, I feel like they could’ve been more unique.” Salinas and other student senate members had suggested ideas like Barbie vs. Oppenheimer, Country vs. Country Club, and Wednesday we wear pink but only referencing the movie Mean Girl. These ideas were shut down because leaders believed they might limit the amount of participants. “Not everyone will get the movie references or have the clothes to participate in them,” said Salinas. Even though we should make our themes unique, there is always the risk that not everyone will be able to participate.
The conditions of the football game were not much different than the day of the dance. The blistering cold and on-and-off rain didn’t make the day quite ideal. Mid to late October is usually when West Michigan gets its rain. It is something that is to be expected during this time of the month. West Ottawa could follow other schools and have homecoming a few weeks earlier, which might prevent rainy football games and cold Saturday night dances.
Every year West Ottawa’s homecoming needs improvements, but let’s make next year better than the rest.
