School spirit will be on full display at Seckman High this week and at Fox High the following week.
Seckman, 2800 Seckman Road, in Imperial is scheduled to play its homecoming football game at 7 p.m. Friday, when the Jaguars will take on the Oakville High Tigers. The cost to attend the game is $3 for students and $5 for adults.
Fox High, 751 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold is scheduled to play its homecoming football game at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, when the Warriors will play host to the Northwest High Lions.
The cost to attend the game is $3 for students and $5 for adults.
Both schools had spirit weeks leading up to the games and dances.
Seckman High
This year’s Seckman High homecoming court includes seniors Kendall Altman, Josie Appel, Ava Duren, Kaitlyn Grace, Cambell Johnson, Brooke Teague, Tate Gonzalez, Isaac Johnson, Ben Lewis, Jack Schlechte, Aiden Schumacher and Amer Velic; and juniors Cameron Crinnion, Anna Dilallo, Ella Mattler, Ryan Balsman, Seth Bokal and Seth Maxwell.
The homecoming queen will be crowned during the game’s halftime, and the king will be crowned at the dance, which will be held on Saturday.
Seckman’s homecoming theme is “Road to New Orleans.”
Valerie Adkins, a Seckman math teacher and Student Council adviser, said the Student Council members voted on the theme, which plays into the high school’s theme for the year, “Life is a Highway.”
“It is about traveling along and making your memories,” Adkins said.
Seckman students started celebrating homecoming week on Monday, with students dressing up for different related themes each day.
Adkins said spirit week is not limited to the high school. Seckman elementary and middle school students, who go on to attend Seckman High, also hold theme days leading up to homecoming.
A homecoming parade is scheduled to start at 6 tonight, Sept. 26, near the intersection of Old Lemay Ferry Road and Seckman Road and then travel down Seckman Road to the Seckman campus, which is home to an elementary, middle and high school.
Adkins said the parade’s grand marshals are Seckman High staff members who graduated from the school, adding that about 15 alumni work at Seckman High.
“We are honoring the alumni who have come back to serve and work in their community,” she said.
Adkins said thousands come to the parade, with people lining Seckman Road and the campus.
“With the parade on Thursday night, all of our feeder schools are participating,” she said. “I think that has really opened it up and allowed it to grow. It has become a true communitywide event.”
Before homecoming festivities started, Seckman held its annual powder puff football game pitting senior and junior female students against each other on Sept. 18, and admission was either $2 or two non-perishable food items.
Adkins said more than $2,000 was collected, and the money was donated to Smiles for Jake, a suicide prevention organization. She said more than 460 food items were collected and donated to Sister Christine’s Food Pantry at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Imperial.
Fox High
This year’s Fox High homecoming court includes seniors Adam Kruse, Ayra Zukic, Gabriella Kennedy, Brooklyn Turner, Aubrey Gretzschel, Brayden Pizzo, Brayden Griffith and Kelan Kirkpatrick; juniors Jaylynn Barnhart, Lacey Rosenberg, Natalie Meyer, David Crandall, Braden Christman, Mason Cook; sophomores McKenna Walton, Lucas Olivares, Kayley Greene, Abigail Pleimann, Danielle Klein and Connor Moravec; and freshmen Nephena Hallenberger and Gavin Beil.
The homecoming king and queen are crowned at the dance, which will be held on Saturday, Oct. 5.
Fox’s homecoming theme is “Night under the stars.”
Junior Hannah Permenter, the Student Council social committee chair, said students voted on the theme from among 20 choices.
“There will be lights strung across the gym for the dance,” she said. “It will be like a night under the stars.”
Fox students will begin celebrating homecoming on Sept. 30, when the school is decorated with the starry theme and the start of spirit week. Seckman students also will dress for daily themes during their spirit week.
On Oct. 2, a powder puff football game pitting female students from the senior and junior classes against each other will be held.
David Pleimann, a science teacher and Student Council sponsor, said admission to the game is $2 and the proceeds will go to the junior and senior classes.
A homecoming parade is set for Oct. 4 on the Fox campus, which includes the high, middle and elementary schools.
“It is so fun to see the elementary and middle school kids out there and how excited they are to see the floats, the band play and cheerleaders perform,” Permenter said. “All of the students are lined up with kindergarten students at one end and high school seniors at the other (of the campus).”
Permenter said the excitement for homecoming begins to build on the first day of school.
“People talk about it for the three months until the dance,” she said. “It all builds up to one big night.”