Preparations for freshman Homecoming roll on

With Homecoming week starting on Sept. 26, the freshman class is left with only a few weeks to prepare for its very first Quad Day. The school’s Homecoming theme this year is “Back in the Day,” and the class of 2020 is tasked with Pixar’s beloved classic “A Bug’s Life.”

“Our theme is quite interesting,” freshman Sonali Shanbhag said. “I'm really liking it because we all came together as a class and thought of which concepts would be cool to incorporate in our Quad Day dance.”

Despite the freshman class’s enthusiasm, they still “have basically no time at all,” freshman secretary Timothy Yoon said. Because the freshmen have two to three fewer weeks to prepare for Homecoming compared to previous years, they, of all the classes, have felt the time crunch. Still, they are putting their best efforts into their first Quad Day.

“Fortunately, there are some really strong leaders in the class of 2020 that have stepped up to the plate and taken things on themselves,” freshman class adviser Kristen Hamilton said.

The freshman officers’ first step once elected on Aug. 26 was to organize a screening of “A Bug’s Life” on Sept. 6 for the freshmen who had not seen the movie.

Since then, Hamilton has been posting announcements on Canvas for those who do not have Facebook accounts, making Homecoming more “inclusive,” she said.

More than 80 students signed up for the dances, such as the All Girls Dance, the All Boys Dance and the Partners Dance. The freshmen have also decided to include a Bollywood number, a Color Guard routine and a dance finale.

The All Girls Dance is led by choreographers Gillian Koerber, Kaitlyn Thompson and Nicole Wang, who are all apart of the SHS Dance Team. They decided to lead the dance, when they found no one else stepping up to the role.

The first practice was held on Sept. 1, and they have high hopes that with two practices a week,  the dance will be perfected by the time Homecoming rolls around later in the month.

“We tried to make the dance as simple as possible, so [that] we can teach it all in the few weeks that we have,” Thompson said.

However, participation for the skit was not so ample.

Scriptwriter Alena Jarrett found her role in Homecoming when the previous scriptwriter stepped down from the position. Jarrett, who helped write scripts for school plays at her previous school and who has two years of experience in Multimedia Arts from Redwood Middle School, found herself the best suited to fill the role.

Jarrett plans to have the actors practice individually in order to schedule only a few meetings for questions and run-throughs.

Out of the 10 characters in their script, only three roles had initially been assigned, so Jarrett elected people to fill the empty roles.

“We chose a variety of personalities, all who were happy with themselves and happy to perform,” Jarrett said.

Despite the obstacles, Jarrett thinks the freshmen can defy expectations.

“I know that all the other grades joke around about the freshmen,” said Jarrett. “But I want this to prove them wrong and show them that we are here and a part of Saratoga High.”