Additional reporting by Amanda Chan

Every year, the Leadership class officers host homecoming and have different expectations, but every year, one goal always remains the same- to make homecoming an unforgettable experience. Senior ASB officer, Natalie Thé, talks about homecoming plans, before the event occurred, and reflects on her last homecoming at Monta Vista.

Before Homecoming (Oct. 6)

El Estoque: How are you preparing for homecoming this year? Any differences from last year?

Natalie Thé: This year we’re a lot more prepared, and I feel more of the hype for homecoming earlier than I did last year. Last year, it hit me when it was the week of, but right now, I’m kind of already feeling it.

EE: How do you usually decide which week is homecoming week, and which class gets which theme?

Peter Kim: The admins schedule out the homecoming calendar at the end of the school year the previous year, so we never have a set date and we always decide [what days homecoming’s on] in class.

NT: We have homecoming jam on the last week of school to decide the next year’s homecoming theme, and seniors get to choose their theme first.

EE: Any major differences that will affect homecoming this year?

NT: One thing different this year is we don’t have that Monday off , so our homecoming week is actually shorter. We have to make Friday a pre-pump up homecoming. And quad dec size restrictions. It used to be that the whole [side of a building] was used, but then, it was decided this year, that the space was too big, and it would be more practical to have classes have a smaller area to fill up for quad decs.

EE: If there is no set date for homecoming, why wasn’t homecoming on a full 5 day week?

PK:We usually hold it in October and we’ve had early Homecoming before, and that never worked out. November’s far too late for Homecoming, and October’s a really busy month in general-there are SATs and ACTs that are sandwiched between Homecoming week, so we had to choose a week where everyone could participate with full success

EE: Do you think this will affect with the homecoming schedule?

NT: Not really. I feel that the more spirit, and the more excitement we have makes the actual homecoming week more fun. I also hope that many people will dress up on Friday.

PK: The only issue is that we have less time to promote Homecoming because normally we’d have a Friday kick-off, but we actually used that to our advantage by having the first day of Homecoming just be on Friday. And that’ll get people pumped for the rest of the week early on.

EE: How do you think MV will react to this difference in homecoming?

PK: I feel like Monta Vista students are good at dealing with changes in general and the fact that we’re such a spirited school I think there’s going to be no issue dealing with the changes.

After Homecoming (October 19)

EE: Do you feel that no school on Monday affected quad dec sizes?

NT: I think with the Monday a lot of classes were able to do there last minute touch-ups, and just put a lot more effort into it, because they had the whole day to do it.

EE: Do you feel that no school on Monday affected the events for the week?

NT: It affected the talent show, because we usually have four days for the talent show, but this year we could only have three days. We had one less dress up daythat we couldn’t count because Monday was off.

El Estoque: How do you think homecoming went?

NT: I think homecoming went really well. I felt like all the classes and leadership committees were very prepared for the week.

El Estoque: What is one thing you really liked this year?

NT: I think quad decs went really well this year. The rally, went really well, and so did everything else. The dance was really good too.

EE: What is one thing you wish you could have done better?

NT: I wish the talent show tech could’ve gone smoother, we were using a new set of outdoor speakers and I think it wasn’t able to really show off all the talent each act had.

EE: Do you feel that if you had school on Monday you could have been able to test the sound systems and outdoor speakers, and fixed it?

NT: No, I don’t think so. It was a new system, and we did sound checks, but it still was an issue we couldn’t really fix.