Coaler pride set to shine at homecoming

Homecoming is a fall tradition at high schools across the county, and here in Coal City the Coalers are preparing for a busy week of activities and athletic competitions.
For senior Cody Rogers, homecoming is the one time of year to, “go full out high schooler.”
It’s the one week during the school year, he said where academics and extra-curriculars take a back seat just really enjoying high school, having fun and spending time with peers.
As president of the school’s student council, Rogers is involved in planning homecoming week activities from dress up days, to a designing a playlist for the dance disc jockey.
Student council members, under the direction of sponsor Sara Anderson, plan every aspect of homecoming week and it’s a process that starts before the prior school year ends.
“That’s the bigger parts of homecoming like setting dates and deciding who’s going to DJ (the dance),” Rogers said.
The final details of the week are wrapped up once school resumes in August. Sometimes the group has three weeks to get it all together or in the case of this year, two months.
Homecoming week kicks off on Monday with a theme of Neon, a decision made by the student body.
A survey was provided to students with several theme choices and Neon topped the voting.
The theme plays a part not only in the week’s activities, but at the dance set for Saturday, Oct. 5 in the school’s gymnasium.
Student council members have set a theme for each day of the week when it comes to how they want their peers, faculty and staff to come dressed.
“When we are planning the dress up days as a student council we just kind of brainstorm and whatever we choose as a collective unit is what happens,” Rogers said.
Sometimes when the group is equally divided on an idea they put it out for the entire school to decide.
“This year we weren’t sure weather to do VSCO girl day which is a really trendy thing or a character day, so we put out polls through our social media and a few hundred students responded and VSCO girl day won,” Rogers said.
So VSCO day will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 2.
The non-teen or tween is likely wondering what a VSCO girl is, so those who grew up in the 80s think back to the preppy girl but exchange the penny loafers for white Vans or Birkenstocks and the plaid school girl skirt for distressed jeans, and throw in a cellular phone with a photo editing app and you come close to a VSCO girl.
The rest of the week’s dress up days don’t need as much explanation. The week starts with Neon Day and is followed by Decades Day when freshmen will be asked to dress in 60s style, sophomores for the 70s, juniors will go with an 80s theme and seniors will come dressed from the 90s.
Thursday is the day the classes are assigned a color with freshmen wearing blue, sophomores in purple, juniors in orange and seniors in red.
Then on the final day of homecoming week, all students will be asked to come in their Coaler green, white and gold for Coaler Spirit Day and take part in an all-school assembly at the close of the day.
This is a time when students fall in step with the Marching Coalers who lead the student body to the gymnasium for the traditional pep assembly that will be hosted this year by the school’s new principal, Chris Spencer.
“And, we are super excited about that,” Rogers said.
In addition to introductions of the school’s fall athletic teams, the band will perform, games will be played and students will be treated to a special cheer performance. The assembly is held in advance of the big football game.
This year the Coalers will host Manteno at 7 p.m. on Friday.
The golf, soccer and volleyball teams will also host homecoming matches that week and all are on Thursday.
A highlight of the week is Spirit Night, a time when classes compete for the coveted spirit stick in a series of class competitions including the popular powder puff football game and dodgeball.
In the past there has been a tug-of-war battle, but it has the potential to be replaced with a round of giant Jenga, and Rogers is hoping he gets his chance to play a round during his final Spirit Night.
According to Rogers, Spirit Night is a well attended event that certainly brings classes together in celebration of not only the week, but the entire school year.
In fact, he’s seen a lot more students get into the spirit of homecoming over the years.
“Dress up days have been getting more people participating in the last few years which is really exciting. Overall, there is a lot of involvement, staff does a pretty good job getting involved which is also nice,” Rogers said.
As homecoming week draws closer, student council is putting the final touches on all of the events and is looking forward to a fun and successful week.
So what does homecoming mean to a high school student, for Rogers its the culmination of their school pride.
“Throughout the year we have a lot of events and have a lot of school pride in those, but for homecoming you have the football game and you have a lot of people coming back for the game and seeing their old friends, so its kind of the pinnacle essentially, in my opinion, that year of high school when everything comes together and you really let your school pride show,” Rogers said.