Homecoming, also known by many students as HoCo, is a yearly tradition for a large number of high schools that brings students, alumni and the surrounding community together to celebrate school spirit. This year, Edmond Memorial High School’s theme was “We Built This City,” a reference to the 1985 song by Starship with the same title. Since EMHS was the first high school in Edmond, the theme worked perfectly this year, especially considering the opposing team for the HoCo game was Edmond Santa Fe High School. Homecoming consists of night events, homecoming court, a football game and most importantly, the dress-up days, all of which help display pride for EMHS.

Monday

The first dress-up day that numerous students participated in was the classic Jersey Day. Football and basketball jerseys were the most popular options, but EMHS students also wore soccer, hockey and baseball jerseys. This day was a great start to the week, with many students showing school spirit and representing a variety of sports and players on their jerseys. While EMHS tends to do this dress-up day quite a bit, it continues to be fun each time around.

Tuesday

Tuesday continued Homecoming week with Bikers Versus Surfers and the new theme was refreshing. The bikers wore leather jackets and denim attire, and some could even be seen wearing creative fake tattoos that added a comedic effect to the overall outfit. On the other hand, surfers wore their best “beachy” attire, which consisted of leis, Hawaiian shirts, tank tops and bright, vibrant colors. Bikers Versus Surfers was an interesting dress-up day for Homecoming considering it didn’t relate at all to the “We Built This City” theme. However, it was still fun for students and did not disappoint.

Wednesday

“On Wednesdays, We Wear Pink” references the 2004 “Mean Girls” film and was a fantastic dress-up day for EMHS. Pink filled the hallways, from pastel pink to hot pink, hundreds of students wore the color with Bulldog Pride. I noticed that even students who did not dress up for the other days helped contribute to Wednesday’s theme. This day seemed to be the most popular dress-up day, most likely because it was the simplest one to dress up for. The pink also gave a little teaser of what 25k In A Day and Swine Week will look like and how passionate our school will be during Swine Week 2025.

Thursday 

Thursday was Construction Day, adding to the Homecoming theme of “We Built This City.” Lots of students wore construction vests, hard hats and neon. Some went all out and even had a toolbelt with tools to add to the construction theme. However, the construction theme was a little bit confusing and was not clear about what to wear, therefore the majority of students just wore neon. As well as the outfits, the later events took place such as the tailgate. It consisted of food trucks, cornhole and many other games. Later in the evening the Homecoming assembly, located on the football field, had a flag race, a trivia game, a speech from the head football coach, Coach Merideth and so much wonderful energy from the student section. As the night wrapped up, fireworks amazed the crowd, with new and exciting fireworks going off left and right, leaving viewers astonished. 

Friday

Friday night was the big game against Edmond Santa Fe High School, and the stands were filled with the official Homecoming t-shirts, as well as other rock and roll bands such as AC/DC, The Rolling Stones and Queen. The game ended in another Bulldog win with the final score of the game being 35-7. Due to the outfits and the EMHS lead, the student section was bursting with school spirit throughout the game. This was a simple dress-up day but really added to the excitement of the game.

Homecoming was a huge success, with lot of students dressing up throughout the week and showing school spirit. While it wasn’t quite clear on what to wear each day, I liked how it gave creative freedom for students. HoCo was a huge improvement from Howdy Week in terms of dressing up and did not disappoint. The Thursday events and Friday night football game made Homecoming Week a blast to participate in and helped reflect what Edmond Memorial is all about: community and belonging.

Contact Grian Foley at [email protected]