Many athletes excluded during homecoming

COLBY QUALLS – Hoof Prints Staff

Homecoming has been a tradition that both students and parents have cherished for generations. It is the climax of all student social events and it indicates the beginning of the second semester. Even though each school may approach homecoming differently, they usually all use this opportunity to recognize the athletic department along with the alumni. Over the years though, I have increasingly became dissatisfied with the way we establish a homecoming court.

At our school each grade is represented by three princesses that are chosen through a ballot voting system. I have no problem with this. The remaining homecoming court is made up of boy basketball players who each choose an escort known as a maid. Princesses are supposed to get first pick of an escort, but usually couples pair off before the school year.

So what exactly is our homecoming court then? It is basically the boy basketball team. I don’t understand how they represent the whole athletic department and are able to use girls as trophies. It really just seems biased to me and defeating the whole purpose of having a homecoming court.

My suggestion is that not only the boy basketball players are represented, but also the girl basketball players and even the cheerleaders. They work just as hard as the boys and shouldn’t be subjected to only being on the court if a boy asks them to walk with him. Of course some changes would have to be made in the actual set up. First, every member would be recognized and would walk out collectively. They would then be positioned together as a team in their uniform. This would continue until it was time for the princesses to come out.

As you can tell by the set up, we would eliminate all maids. I believe this is a good change. What is the actual point of maids? What are they representing? For the past few years, they have represented girlfriends and arm candy for the boy basketball players. Is that special enough to be represented on the court? Personally, I don’t think so. It is also so pointless for them to buy these expensive and frivolous outfits to be on the court when they serve no purpose.

The only ones who should be in formal attire are the princesses. They are the chosen representatives. They reflect the opinion of each class. Then they should be the ones that choose the lucky guy to be their escort. With no maids, this helps elevate the status and prestige of a princess. Throughout the years the very value of the princess has been watered down by these maids. Having so many maids has also been the root of so much drama. It is more practical, efficient and even wiser that we only have princesses in this formal parade.

I don’t see how anyone could argue that it is a bad thing for more people involved in the sports department to be recognized. Some may say it takes up too much time, but that is an obvious fallacy. With each student in their uniform, they would walk at a brisk pace compared to the deliberately slow pace that each maid has. It would actually save time and still have more people involved than there is now.

The main reason we keep our current situation deals with tradition for tradition’s sake. Is that a logical reason though? I believe if it was put up to vote that the majority would agree that it is time for a change. This change wouldn’t be that hard to make nor would it have any negative implications that I can notice. It is up to us to say enough is enough. Hopefully next year we will consider some sort of change in order to have a greater number involved.

Homecoming a tradition worth preserving

LINDSAY RICE – Hoof Prints Staff

Homecoming at BIC has been the same for years. In our homecoming, not only do the three princesses walk with an escort, but there are maids involved also. The princesses are voted on by their classes and they can choose any guy to walk with. Then, the maids are picked by the remaining boys’ ball team members. Usually the princesses selected boys’ ball team members. As I said before, this is the way it has been for years. It’s tradition. There are many ways homecoming can be done, but there are also many cons to doing it these different ways.

To begin with, we could make it just athletes. In a sense, we already do this.  The athletes are all announced during the homecoming ceremony, and they are asked to stand up if they aren’t a part of the homecoming court. Another con to doing homecoming this way is the fact that it would take up even more time. Homecoming would last forever. This would add a ton of people to the court meaning more time to announce people and let them walk out to the court. Then after everyone is on the court, and the parents are done taking pictures, we would have to wait for everyone to walk off the court. Not only are there going to be  tons of adults and some students who have to work Saturday morning, there are little children who need to go bed at a decent time. There are also elderly people who want to watch their grandchildren in homecoming and the games, but who can’t sit in the chairs in the gym for long periods of time because of medical problems.

Another way we could change homecoming is to make it just the princesses and their escorts, which could be either their pick of a boy or their fathers like some schools do. Our way lets more girls and guys walk on the court. The way we do it involves more girls. Our school gives more girls the chance to have their moment in the spotlight. Also, the way we do homecoming gives more guys the chance to have a pretty girl on the arm for the whole gym to see.  They get to have their own moment in the spotlight.

Some people think that our way of doing homecoming causes too much drama. Well, they’re right. There is always a ton of drama every year with homecoming. Most guys and girls decide who they’re walking with during the summer before homecoming is even thought about at school. There are girls whose moms buy their daughters dresses during the summer. Couples get together before the princesses are picked, and then sometimes princesses decide they want to walk with someone’s boyfriend. This happens for various reasons; sometimes it’s just that the guy may be a really good friend. But, changing homecoming to other ways may cause even more drama.

If we just let princesses walk, then girls will do anything to get voted princess.  They may go around mudslinging other girls and just being even more mean than teenage girls can be already. Girls will get their feelings hurt because they aren’t chosen as princess and feel that no one likes them knowing that there’s no other way they can walk. If we change homecoming to make it just about the athletes, those who aren’t athletes may feel discriminated against. They may feel that the school absolutely does not care about anyone unless they are an athlete. To sum this up, no matter how we change homecoming there will be tons of drama. There is no way to make everyone happy.

In short, our homecoming is perfectly fine the way it is.  Anyway we change it, someone will find a reason to be unhappy. The only thing would change is the reason people are unha
ppy.  This is high school. No matter what, there is always going to be some kind of drama going on. There is no reason to change our homecoming. It has worked perfectly fine for years, why mess with it now?