Kimberly Rivera

Students lead the 2022 homecoming parade down Main Street.

Editor’s note: Additional reporting for this story was provided by Noah Baker.

Homecoming will be back from Oct. 10-14 with all of its usual festivities planned by the Student Council, including the dance, parade and spirit days.

“Chalk the Walk” on Tuesday, Oct. 10 from 3:45 to 5:30 p.m. kicks off the shortened week of homecoming festivities due to Monday’s district holiday. Students will decorate sidewalks around the school and football stadium. Chalk will be provided by StuCo, as well as handouts with design ideas. As always, there will be spirit days and special dress-up days throughout the week, including decades day, hoco shirt day, hippie day and mum/garter day.

“We’re hoping the spirit days we’ve chosen are simple and quick and can reach out to every student in the school and not just the Student Council,” Senior Class President Tiara Rebollar said.

Students from all three campuses can participate in the parade on Wednesday, Oct. 11 with their club or class float. The parade, which has been a longstanding tradition, is not only important to the school but also to the city and the community.

“The parade is very special to the city of Lewisville,” said Allison Stamey, student activities director and Student Council sponsor. “[It] is their largest parade. It’s bigger than Western Days. It’s bigger than their holiday parade.”

The community pep rally will be held after the parade at the City Hall at 7:15 p.m. Anyone can join the event, including elementary and middle school students.

“I think it’s a way to bring the community [together],” Rebollar said. “It’s the homecoming for Lewisville High School and Killough and Harmon, but the community pep rally is for the whole community to be involved. It gives elementary kids an opportunity to experience a little pep rally with the high schoolers.”

A student body pep rally will also be held on Friday, Oct. 13. The homecoming court will be announced at 6:30 p.m. before the football game against Plano Senior High that night.

StuCo expects to see more people getting involved in events, especially since the school has revived all the homecoming events that were held before the annual festivities were altered for COVID-19.

“I would say this is the first senior class I have seen that things are really coming back,” Stamey said. “So it’s definitely getting better this year when it comes to socialization and getting to know your peers and taking part in school events.”

Stamey stressed the traditional role of homecoming as a chance for alumni to return to their school community and shared that many more people than just the student body will be taking part in the occasion.

“To keep alumni active, we always try to do an alumni tailgate party,” Stamey said. “So for example, the class of 2003 who were my officers back then, they’re planning their 20th year reunion right now. The class of 2013 is planning their 10-year reunion right now.” 

The alumni tailgate party will be held at 5-6:30 p.m. before the game on the lawn area between the auditorium and the stadium. Stamey said all alumni and parents are invited, and the event will also feature photo opportunities with Big John and tours of the building. 

Online ticket sales for the game will begin the Monday, Oct. 9— in-person sales will be on Wednesday at the LISD Athletic Building from 12-2 p.m. Stamey said other special presentations will be made during the game.

“We present the alumni [inducted into the] Hall of Fame at halftime,” Stamey said. “We have the state championship team from 1993 celebrating their 30th anniversary. And so they are going to be recognized that time as well when the homecoming game’s over.”

The homecoming dance is on Saturday, Oct. 14, with the theme of “Dancing Through the Decades.” Rebollar said the theme was selected because of its versatility for other events like the parade.

“We decided to do ‘Dancing Through the Decades’ because our hoco theme has to correlate to the homecoming parade,” Rebollar said. “It has to be available for elementary and middle schools to decorate floats, so it was something that we needed to be able to have plenty of floats and plenty of design.”

Students can buy tickets for the dance in room G144 and pay with cash or card. The price of the tickets have gone up from $25 to $30 this year due to inflation, although they are still considerably lower than some of the other schools in the district, whose prices start at $50, said Stamey.

“In the last two years, we ended up taking a hit when we were $25 because of the cost of everything going up,” Stamey said. “And so that’s why we are trying to minimize expenses by doing some of the stuff we do for homecoming.”

Stamey noted Student Council has to generate all the money it spends on student activities each year since it doesn’t receive funds from campus or district administration. From the posters in hallways to the sashes presented to the homecoming court to the decorations at the dance, it all comes from the same place: fundraising.

“We have to fundraise for everything,” Stamey said. “The homecoming dance is a fundraiser for us. Everything we buy goes back to the school.”

Just like at prom, homecoming dance attendees will have to breathe into a passive alcohol sensor upon entering and leaving the event. The dance will also feature a new DJ from Party Time, Inc. after complaints about the previous DJ from students who went to last year’s prom. Stamey said the new DJ, who came recommended from Flower Mound and Marcus High Schools, will save the school some additional money to help offset the inflation.

“I checked [the new DJ] out,” Stamey said. “He had great reviews, and he was way cheaper.”

The dance has a semiformal dress code and no jeans will be allowed. Stamey said StuCo has a number of clothing items including dresses, shirts and suits available for students to borrow if they are not able to purchase something to wear to the dance. Students can discreetly check out what’s available during lunches in room G144. 

“There’s always resources around you [to assist in helping students in need participate in events],” Rebollar said. “[Communities In Schools] is always willing to help. If you talk to your counselors, if you come to Ms. Stamey, there are so many people willing to give some money to enjoy your years in high school.”

Junior class president Luca Bella Francis said she is excited for all the events, including the parade and the Friday football game, as she encouraged students to actively participate in homecoming.

“You guys honestly just want to get involved,” Francis said. “It really does affect your high school experience.”