From dressing up to dancing, we were “Enchanted:” Recapping 2025 Homecoming week
Homecoming Spirit days began Monday, Sept. 22. The first day was “Disney royalty” day where students in teachers dressed as their favorite Disney prince or princess.
Senior Eden Piotrowski dressed up as Sleeping Beauty, but took the “sleeping part” literally.
“This is the costume I had lying around my house. So it was the easiest. You can’t really tell, but I do have slippers on,” Piotrowski said.
Many students found inspiration from their closets including senior Yaretzi Vicencio who dressed as Vanellope von Schweetz from Wreck-it Ralph.
“I just asked someone if I could borrow their teal hoodie and I used hair clips as candies in my hair. I just did my makeup like her too,” Vicencio said.
Students took this as an opportunity to not only get creative but also dress up as their favorite characters.
“I just really like how everyone just channels their favorite Disney princess. It’s just like their childhood and it’s pretty cool and everyone just talks about it. It’s like a conversation starter, so I like it,” Marisabel Rodrigues (11) said.
Tuesday, Sept. 23, McIntosh students showed off their best western looks or came in their best golfing attire.
“I love Western fashion. As someone that is in the world of agriculture, it just speaks to me,” Mary-Anne Burnett, a senior at McIntosh said.
Wednesday, Sept. 24, McIntosh stole Adam Sandler’s wardrobe by dressing up in their best baggy t-shirts, basketball shorts and backwards baseball caps.
“[My favorite Adam Sandler movie is] probably Happy Gilmore 2 because it’s really funny,” freshman Catlin Wilis said.
Thursday, Sept. 25, students and teachers took a blast to the past dressing in their best Y2K styles. Some of these included two-piece sets, shades, baggy clothing and caps.
“I like how it can be interpreted in a lot of ways, because there’s a lot of different types of people in Y2K. There’s like, Emos, there’s jocks [and] fashionable people. So I like how you can see everyone’s little twist, and I think it’s easy too, because it was only 20 years ago, so everyone can just raid their [parent’s] closets,” senior Aahana Gupta said.
Friday, Sept. 26, the homecoming dress-up days wrapped up with Spirit day. Each grade is dressed in a specific color. Freshman wore white, sophomores in green, juniors in black and seniors wore their togas.
“[Spirit week overall] was a lot of fun, like dressing up everyday and seeing everyone’s clothes. I get to wear styles I never usually wear,” senior Raghav Ratkalkar said.
Thursday, Sept. 25 was McIntosh’s annual Homecoming parade. McIntosh clubs and sports teams made floats and threw candy to the crowd. Some floats used trailers and some floats used golf carts.
“This is the [Future Business Leaders of America] club float. We have a fall festival coming up on Oct. 25 all elementary school kids should come. The float was just for fall, with all the leaves, it’s supposed to be for the kids,” sophomore Xavier Jones said.
The football team also attended the parade and had a float.
“We just ordered [stuff] off of Amazon [that] we saw on Pinterest. So it was like, let’s just decorate the truck, put the senior names on the side and just be presentable,” said Brandan Ridley (12) said.
Players were gearing up for the game on Friday, Sept. 26.
“[It’s] intense on both sides of football. We’re trying to make each other better, but we’re just trying to get that W That’s it. That’s what we’re trying to do,” Julian Love (10) said.
On Sept. 26 McIntosh held its Homecoming pep rally after school to boost school spirit and cheer the Chiefs on for the Homecoming game later that evening. The Student Athletic Advisory Committee was heavily involved this year in the planning and execution of the pep rally.
“My plans are to let these great student leaders, [these] student athletic leaders lead this pep rally today and it’ll be one of the best pep rallies we’ve ever had so we can have more this year,” Jason Carrera, assistant principal and athletic director, said.
The rally is meant to motivate students and collectively show school spirit. This year, the student athletic advisory committee played a large role in setting up the games and activities for the student body to view and participate in, so things were done differently compared to previous pep rallies. Seniors Kelsie Alonso and Grace McClery are members of the student athletic advisory committee and helped set up the pep rally.
“We just have new events, so I feel like [that] will help with keeping it authentic and fresh,” McClery said.
The pep rally opened with Chiefettes and the competitive cheer team performing dance routines.
“The goal is to show our school spirit, to introduce our teams that are playing in the fall and also our homecoming court and we’ve got a special surprise for today,” Carrera said.
After the cheer and dance performances, three disguised individuals made their way onto the gym floor. Each one of them gave a brief singing performance and the two runner-ups were unveiled after the student body chose the best performer. The winner was not unveiled at the pep rally since they were going to be revealed at the game later that evening.
“This year it’s much more student-led. We’re very excited. We have a masked singer and we have a few games planned, too,” Alonso said.
Carrera and members of the student athletic advisory committee are thinking about planning more pep rallies for later in the school year.
“My idea is that we should do a pep rally second semester too,” Alonso said.
On Friday, Sept. 26, McIntosh had its Homecoming game against Northgate High School. The game kicked off at 7:30 P.M.
“I mean, last year we had a great team. We had a great class of 25 you know, had a lot of kids go to the next level. But this year, I mean, I think, I think my board’s looking good, you know, I think we’re going to make a good run this year. I think Coach Smith knows what he’s doing. He’s got a great system here. Coach blast, got a great defense. He’s running. I think we got a good shot through. Looking good,” Maddox Dykeman, McIntosh Alumni and former football player, said.
The final score for the game was 14-35.
“I would probably say Julian Love [is playing the hardest in the game]. He’s working. That’s good. And what do you think is something we can do better the next half, wrap up and tackle,” Chris Halbert (9) said.
The winners for the Homecoming court for all grade levels were announced at the football game. For freshmen, the Homecoming Lady and Lord were Elijah Caldwel and Brooklinn Turner. The sophomore duke and duchess were Saket Sonone and Danika Simpson. The homecoming prince and princess were Gio Okoronkwo and Remi Marler. The homecoming king and queen were Tristan Campbell and Ellie Bednarowski.
“Great. The more hype you can be, the more fun it will be. Trust. Like actually. And if you act like you can’t hear anyone, so you start yelling, it makes your energy, like, change. You get way more hyped. Every year, people ask me like I’m on something. I never am. I’m always completely cold sober,” Ellie Bednarowski (12) said.
On Saturday, Sept. 27, McIntosh hosted the Homecoming Dance in the McIntosh gym. The theme for this year’s Homecoming Dance was “Enchanted Garden.” For the entire week, McIntosh students prepared for the dance by dressing up and attending events such as the homecoming football game and pep rally on Friday. According to some, homecoming this year wasn’t as good compared to previous years.
“I don’t feel any different but homecoming this year was not that great,” Sadie Cline (12) said.
There were a few instances during the dance where admin would pause the music to tell students to stop forming dance circles, which are spaces made in the crowd made in order to spotlight one or a few students to dance in front of those watching. Students usually huddle around the dancers and use their phones to take pictures and videos of the dancers.
“The music wasn’t the best and the admin kept stopping the music to regulate everything,” Cline said.
Despite this, some students did still find the homecoming dance to be an enjoyable experience.
“I feel like homecoming is fun,” Lindsay Lindberg (11) said.
During the dance, homecoming royalty was announced again. Homecoming king Tristan Campbell enjoyed some of the songs played at the dance.
“‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber,” Campbell said, “This is my favorite song right now.”
Homecoming Queen Ellie Bednarowski also enjoyed the songs and activities available at the dance.
“The song ‘Golden’ was really, really fun to dance to. And so is ‘Cotton Eye Joe.’ I know they’re kind of lame songs, so they were super fun for me. And then also, I love the photo booth. I [saw] a bunch of my friends over there. It’s great,” Bednarowski (12) said.
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