Homecoming 2021 is the most awaited event of this school year. After a year of absolute nothing, OHS’s student government is bringing back the popular high school event. Although student safety is still their priority, STUGO plans to provide the students with a fun homecoming while keeping proper COVID-19 restrictions in mind. 

One of the most important events of homecoming is the homecoming dance. The hype around this event is a well known fact amongst all students and teachers. To make it more special, STUGO has decided to host the event at Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort. The dance this year is going to be admired because of its location and a few other changes. 

“We are going to have a dance for outside and inside in hopes to separate people basically,” said Lauren Fetkenhier, STUGO Advisor. “I think they are going to like the outside area along with the inside area and then there’s like a small seating area too. So, all of that is going to be enjoyable…but I think just being able to get a little bit of normalcy back.”

Amid COVID-19, it was hard for STUGO to organize the homecoming dance. However, it was very important to them, as bringing homecoming back is something they really looked forward to. After not being able to organize homecoming last year, STUGO was delighted to find out about the plans this year. 

“I think everybody is really excited. I think the STUGO kids are super excited and I think the student body is also excited to have a dance again. So I think it was definitely in everyone’s favor,” Fetkenhier said. 

The main target for homecoming this year is to attract students to join the homecoming events. Student government has taken measures to make sure that the number of student participants is very high. 

“We want to have a high amount of students coming to the event,” said Clinton Stevenson, junior. “Our goal is for more students to attend the dance so we wanted to lower the price and not raise the price.”

The theme for this year’s homecoming is Mt. Fuji and the Olympics. Looking at the Olympics held in Japan previously this year, STUGO was inspired by it to come up with this theme. 

“A night on Mt. Fuji ties into our spirit week because of the Olympics. The Olympics are taking place in Tokyo so it’s going to be really nice,” Stevenson said. “So we are going to have stars, red lanterns, flags; we are going to have cherry blossoms. It is going to look really pretty.”

The homecoming was planned keeping COVID-19 in mind. Precautions were taken while planning the event as student safety was the biggest priority. 

“We really want homecoming to be safe but also really fun, more like a regular year for all our students,” said John Zeng, sophomore. “We do want to limit how many people are inside and because our venue this year is pretty huge, we are going to have a lot more space and we are going to have a lot more outdoor space too.”

The homecoming week is going to be filled with multiple events that are going to happen throughout the week. It is going to be a very busy week for everyone at OHS.

“We have Powderpuff on Monday, parade’s on Wednesday, the assembly is Friday, and then Friday night we have a fan festival which will be held before the football game from 4-6. We are going to have a game starting at 7, and Saturday will be the homecoming dance,” Fetkenhier said.