Homecoming festivities were cancelled in the fall of 2020, but this year, Student Council planned a week of activities for Shorewood students. Starting on September 20, students were encouraged to participate in spirit week, powderpuff and to attend the homecoming parade and game. Due to the pandemic, however, the homecoming dance and pep rally were cancelled.

At school, students dressed according to spirit week themes. Monday was pajama day, Tuesday: decades day, Wednesday: character day, Thursday: semi-formal wear, and Friday: red and grey. Last fall, the sense of community suffered, but this year’s homecoming week allowed the student body to reunite. 

“I was really impressed with everybody dressing up for the homecoming week,” said Jacey Gray-Hall, class of 2022 student council president.

Student participation in the homecoming spirit week garnered attention from people other than students.

“I saw a lot of participation in doing the various themes of the week and stuff, so it seemed like a really good response from the student body,” said Tim Kenney, SHS principal. “The big concept behind doing things like that is the idea of building community as a school… building a strong classroom and school community is one of our major goals for this year.”

Despite cold and rainy weather, many students showed up to the homecoming football game. Messwood played Greenfield and lost 12-20. Even though the team lost, students were excited that Messwood scored. 

“I was happy to see the turnout, despite the bad weather,” said Chloe Osborn, junior representative. “I was proud of the team, it was better than they’ve done in the past, and I think the support from the student section really helped.”

Per tradition, SHS girls participated in powderpuff on Thursday night. The sophomores played the freshmen while the seniors played the juniors in flag football. The seniors and sophomores won their games while parents, teachers and members of the Messwood football team coached. 

Undefeated in every powderpuff game of their high school careers, the seniors took the game very seriously.

“We did have plays this year that we followed and then I was able to catch the pass for the winning touchdown,” Gray-Hall said. “So yeah, it was really fun, it was competitive, the juniors were still trying to make a last touchdown in those last couple of minutes but we did not let them so it was good and everyone had good sportsmanship.”

The powderpuff game was allowed because students had enough space to social distance on the bleachers, something that would be unrealistic during the pep rally. Kenney was concerned that with the entire body compacted, even outside on the bleachers, a pep rally would be unsafe due to the pandemic. 

“We would have to have tried to do it outdoors if we were going to do it, which meant on the bleachers,” Kenney said. “Putting 650 students all jammed together would fill them to capacity… [Students would be] cheering and screaming and all that stuff which is a tremendous amount of aerosol being generated.”

The homecoming dance would have also had to occur outside. This created several logistical problems for student council and made it too difficult to plan a dance during homecoming week. Outside venues were considered, but student council could not guarantee transportation to the dance in a way that obeyed COVID restrictions. Instead, the student council planned a Fall Frolic on the front lawn during a combined Advisory and lunch period. 

Although the homecoming dance and pep rally were not possible this year, Gray-Hall and Kenney felt that homecoming week was an excellent opportunity for the student body to bond.

“I have enjoyed that start of the school year immensely, and that is because of the students of Shorewood,” Kenney said. “It was a great week.”

“There was no sense of togetherness [over] the last year,” Gray-Hall said. “I think that this year [homecoming was] probably as best as we could have done considering the circumstances… We just try to do events where everyone can be included, we try to plan fun stuff and to get feedback from the student body.”