Pioneer High School’s 2023 Homecoming is the first big event at the school this year, and the 2024 seniors will have their last chance at a good Homecoming experience.
The Homecoming dance is the first dance of the 2023-24 school year, and the first after a wave of COVID hitting the school once again. The dance is Saturday, Oct. 7, with the theme “Starry Night,” and it’s a semi-formal dance.
The Pioneer Action team has been planning this year’s Homecoming to make it something special. Natalie Torrentz and Manuela Diaz-Castro, both seniors, are the heads of ‘Pio Action!’ They have big hopes for a memorable Homecoming. “We’ve been working really hard to organize all the decorations. We’re going to have a photobooth, we’re going to have food trucks. It’s going to be inside and outside,” says Torrentz.
Diaz-Castro added that they’re hoping for big attendance this year, the first really “normal” year since COVID. “I do hope to see more turn out from the upperclassmen. It’s pretty typical for lower classmen to go, because it’s one of their first bigger dances to go to. So, our goal is trying to get everyone to go,” she said.
This year’s Spirit Week was announced Thursday, Sept. 28 with school-wide dress-up days and other activities. “For Spirit Week, we made a whole list. We had around 36 ideas,” Torrentz said, including traditional themes like pajama day, neon day, and sports day. The group ended up choosing Barbie dress up, country vs. country club, night in vs. night out, jersey vs. Jersey Shore and class colors on Friday.
“We’re trying to make it more enjoyable for people, and make people actually want to come to the dance,” said Torrentz. When asked if they had attended any of the dances the past three years, both of their answers were no. “My friends have gone and said it hasn’t been as fun as they hoped,” Torrentz said. “Hopefully we can change whatever it is that they didn’t like in the past,” added Diaz-Castro.
Two seniors at Pioneer, Stella Bird and Lawrence Peeple, say they’ll be going to Homecoming. “I’ve been to every Homecoming so far besides my freshman year,” Peeple said.
Both Bird and Peeple shared that the dances were enjoyable overall, but also a bit boring. “I wish there was activities there, that would be so much better. All I did was stand there, I even took a nap at the dance my junior year. To prevent that from happening, have things to keep me active.” said Peeple.
“The music also isn’t great, it’s the same four Dua Lipa songs and then the ‘Electric Shuffle’. It’s very 2018,” added Bird.
The Homecoming football game is something else to be looking forward to. With a bad luck streak (with the loss the past three years), students hope to get the win this year. “We have not won any of the Homecoming games in the past few years, which is pretty interesting and I want to see the team improve this year,” said Bird.
The game will be Pioneer vs. Skyline, and the expectations for the team are high. “All games I went to we lost but I liked going to the games. it was fun getting back out there and watching football,” said Peeple.
Overall this year so far seems very promising for its homecoming outcome, with the changes being made to improve the dance and make it more enjoyable for everyone, including upperclassmen. Pioneer has hopes for the football game with new coaches, and a strong hope for a win with the current loss streak.
